The revolutionary shift in how we drive

Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India, explains how they are taking a holistic approach in developing the whole ecosystem from introducing the born electric vehicles to cell level localization and setting up charging infrastructure

- Sunil Rajguru

What is the future of EVs in India? Can they become mainstream? What are the advantages and challenges?

The Indian EV industry witnessed a remarkable one million EV sales in FY2223. However, these numbers are primarily accounted for by two-wheelers, three-wheelers and small commercial vehicles. For the passenger car industry, the contribution of EVs was less than 1%. The adoption of EVs in the passenger car segment will happen at a much steadier rate owing to high prices of EVs, short cruising range leading to range anxiety and lack of charging infrastructure. Since emissions standards are tightening globally, including in India, there is an industry consensus that EVs will become mainstream. However, it is safe to say that the transition to a pure EV automotive industry will be a gradual one, as the whole ecosystem including establishment of a charging network and the entire national power grid is prepared to deal with EVs. This is why, we at Maruti Suzuki are taking a holistic approach of developing the whole ecosystem from introducing the born electric vehicles to cell level localization and setting up charging infrastructure.

In the recently concluded Auto-Expo’23, we displayed our eVX Electric SUV concept, which will be our first electric vehicle that will be launched in FY24-25. This will spearhead our plan of launching 6 EVs by 2030. Furthermore, Suzuki Motor Corporation has announced the investment of ₹100 billion to kickstartthe production of automotive battery packs for BEV batteries in India.