ELECTRIFYING INDIA

With its first EV, can the country's largest carmaker accelerate EV adoption in India? We test the new e Vitara to find out.

- WORDS ISHAN RAGHAVA PHOTOGRAPHY KAPIL VASHISHT

For about a decade or so, the Indian government has been actively trying to promote the shift from internal combustion to electric power. They've tried to encourage - and some might even say force - the market towards mass EV adoption through a range of measures. These include tax exemptions for consumers, incentives for companies establishing new EV manufacturing plants, and regulatory mandates such as requiring commercial vehicles to be fully electric - for instance, three-wheeler EV rickshaws, which are now quite common across the country.

However, the push for this switch in the passenger vehicle segment has met with limited success. According to recent statistics, EV adoption in this segment is around 4%, which is minuscule when considering that the Indian market now witnesses about 45 lakh vehicle sales a year.

Now, this could change with the entry of the Maruti Suzuki e Vitara in the Indian market. Manufactured in India, this new EV has the potential to significantly boost overall EV sales in the country. Why? Well, consider the following facts. Maruti Suzuki sells about 20 lakh vehicles annually, making it the undisputed market leader. More importantly, the company's extensive dealership network - over 4,000 touchpoints, including both Arena and Nexa outlets - gives it far greater reach than any other car manufacturer in the country.

And if that's not enough, Maruti Suzuki is now investing about ₹250 crore in establishing 1 lakh charging points by 2030 to further push EV adoption.

A couple of months ago, we drove the e Vitara in the UK and were left thoroughly impressed by its performance. But now that we've driven it here, we can judge how it performs in Indian conditions.