Ever since the Government has announced its EV mission 2030 India, all major Indian automakers have been bucking up for this major technology shift. Among these is India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki which is all set for this humongous technological shift of all-electric fleet by 2030.
Maruti Suzuki is planning to set its Lithium battery plant in Gujarat and is looking for suppliers of Lithium (either from abroad or within India which has to be worked out). The company is also trying to set up its EV charging stations network in the country which are already being established by Tata power aggressively.
As far as the EV launch is concerned, Maruti has already started working on its strategy for the First EV car in India, which will not be able to give Maruti an edge as competitors like M&M and Tata Motors are already present in the industry.
As EV is a altogether new technology, so, training and educating its dealers staff would be needed on Maruti’s part. Lithium is very harmful and poisonous which will put a safety concern on Maruti’s shoulders, for keeping the environment and its employees safe.
According to Maruti Suzuki’s CEO, Kenichi Ayukawa, EV push in India will be needing the Government’s support to a large extent, for the supply of Lithium in India on which the EV strategy will largely be dependant. Also, the Government policy regime will help in the pricing strategy for Maruti as the Government has already put tax relaxation for EV cars and higher tax slabs for hybrid, plug-in variants.
All in all, Maruti and other automakers have to ease out the EV sectoral shift as fast as possible for smooth adoption by the Indian public.
