First Maruti Suzuki electric vehicle to be delivered by 2020, says RC Bhargava

Maruti Suzuki India chairman and chief executive RC Bhargava said on Thursday that the company is committed to meeting its target of delivering its first electric vehicle (EV) by 2020. However, while the government has an ambitious plan to have an all-EV market by 2030, Bhargava believes that only some 14.4 million of the 71 million cars to be sold by 2030 would be EVs. A survey of the potential EV market, commissioned by Maruti, will start in another two-three weeks and will conclude by February 2018. The survey, the company reckons, will enable it to authenticate a lot of things associated with EVs and the ecosystem that needs to be created to support it. “Nobody is really bothered about what the consumer is thinking about EVs. We need to know the ground reality and what the customer wants,” said Bhargava. “It is still very early days and a lot of details need to be worked out, and I don’t think anybody knows what kind of infrastructure will be required to support EVs.” Bhargava’s comments came just a day after the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers submitted a white paper to the power ministry, where the auto industry has proposed a road map to go all-electric by 2047. The government’s goal is to have an all-electric market by 2030.

“Earlier in February, Toyota and Suzuki signed their MoU which includes sharing of R&D and technology which included hybrids and EVs. We as Maruti here don’t have technology on EVs; but Suzuki has the technology and Toyota has even more technology. So the two of them will combine and use their technology for manufacturing cars. They will only give the technology but vehicles will be made in India. We still don’t know whether we will make it in Manesar or the Gujarat plant or some third plant but we will certainly sell the cars, we will service the cars and we will look after the ecosystem,” said the chairman.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited