Suzuki to launch its first electric vehicle in India by 2025: Reports

Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp is likely to enter the electric vehicle market in India by 2025. The company is expected to launch its first model in the country, according to a report by Nikkei Asia on Monday.

Suzuki's four-wheeler business, which operates in India in partnership with Maruti, is reportedly planning to launch an all-electric compact model for the Indian customers. Though not much detail has been divulged in the report, the electric car is likely to be priced in the range between ₹10 lakh and ₹11 lakh. The price, pegged at around $13,626, will include subsidies offered by the government on electric vehicles.

If the report is to be believed, it will help the Japanese carmaker move faster towards electric mobility in the category of compact cars. Maruti Suzuki India currently is the biggest automaker in India, and is also the Japanese carmaker's major strongholds in the Asian markets. Maruti Suzuki's sales in India are mostly dominated by small, compact cars like Alto, WagonR, Baleno and Swift.

According to the report published in Nikkei Asia, the new electric vehicle will be first launched in India, and then in other markets like Suzuki's home base Japan and Europe.

Maruti Suzuki has been testing some of the electrified version of its popular offerings like WagonR on Indian roads for quite some time. However, there is no official confirmation about the timeline of its launch. While most of its competitors have started to move towards electric mobility, or are planning to in near future, Maruti Suzuki has been more vocal about CNG technology than EVs so far.

Despite being the world's fifth largest car market, India has not seen a major push in customer behaviour as far as shift towards electric vehicles are concerned. While there have been some encouraging signs when it comes to electric two-wheelers, price of electric four-wheelers, coupled with reasons like range anxiety and lack of infrastructural support have slowed down EV growth in the country.

The Centre had earlier set a goal of selling at least 30% of all cars to be electric by 2030. To make the shift towards electric cars more lucrative, the Centre has also offered incentives for buyers that cost nearly 100 billion rupees over a three-year period starting in 2019. Several state governments have also formulated their own electric vehicle policies to augment the EV shift in In

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