Maruti Suzuki has a firm grip on the Indian car market, seeing the highs and lows since 1983. But with times changing, can the largest carmaker of Ind
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- Maruti Suzuki has a firm grip on the Indian car market, seeing the highs and lows since 1983. But with times changing, can the largest carmaker of India evolve quickly enough?
Suzuki Motor Corp. is confident of India’s growth story and expects to keep a very tight grip on the country’s car market even with its plans of gradually transitioning towards a portfolio that has more and more electric vehicles or EVs. In fact, Maruti Suzuki is all set to introduce its first-ever EV in India – the eVX – in 2025, even though company officials have also put their weight behind hybrid technology.
India is absolutely crucial for Suzuki with the country becoming only the second – after Japan – to see a key production milestone of three crore vehicle units. Maruti Suzuki traces its roots back to 1983 and has seen the evolution of Indian car market from close quarters. But even though several rivals continue to mount challenges, and EV as well as hybrid technologies provide opportunities for a re-levelled playfield, Kenichi Ayukawa is still sure of retaining the crown. The Executive Vice President of Suzuki Motor Corp. points to several factors for this.
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In an interview to Bloomberg, Ayukawa points to India’s economic strength and the growing middle class population and explains that these will drive the country’s passenger vehicle (PV) market. “We’re confident that the Indian market will expand in the mid to long term. We’ll develop products, invest and expand our network,” he was quoted as saying.
Swift(ly) transitioning towards EVs
While the thrust for Maruti Suzuki in India will continue to come from enormously popular models like WagonR, Swift and Brezza, EVs are inevitable. And as such, the incoming Maruti Suzuki eVX could potentially demonstrate the company’s seriousness about EVs. While critics argue that Maruti Suzuki is significantly behind the curve and is entering the party late, others argue that India’s electric PV segment is still very small and therefore, has a lot of potential.
Watch: Maruti unveiled eVX EV Concept at Auto Expo 2023
Suzuki expects 15 per cent of its India sales to come from EVs and that is being massively ambitious. This is especially true because Maruti Suzuki eVX will be a premium offering and Ayukawa is well aware of it. “India remains a price-conscious market,” he admitted, but also adding that factors such as environmental issues will help EV adoption.
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But Maruti Suzuki is also not putting all its proverbial eggs in the basket of just the eVX. Previous reports have suggested that the company will follow up the launch of its first-ever EV in India with more affordable models. There is a chance that WagonR EV – spotted on test runs in India – could be the real gamechanger as well as volume driver for the company. And of course, there is the global tie-up with Toyota that will also come as a shot in the arm for Suzuki. “We will learn basic know-how from Toyota and gradually make it our own,” Ayukawa said about product development.
First Published Date: 22 Jul 2024, 08:44 AM IST