While almost all the front-ranking automobile companies in India are up and running with their electric vehicles strategy, the country's top-most car maker Maruti is not so fast off the blocks. It will roll out its first electric vehicle only by 2025 from the plant at Gujarat. Maruti is already on record saying that while the Indian EV market is growing, it is very small and the market share of EVs will only be 10% by 2030.
Reflecting this line of thinking, Maruti also feels that vehicles powered by hybrid technology, natural gas and biofuels present a better path toward a cleaner future than electric cars.
Its Chairman R C Bhargava, in an interview to Bloomberg said to speak without looking at the greenness of the electricity generated in the country is an inadequate approach to the problem. "Until the time we have a cleaner grid power, it’s necessary to use all the available technologies like compressed natural gas, ethanol, hybrid and biogas, which will help reduce the carbon footprint and not push any one technology.”
Maruti not following other carmakers
Reagardless of what other manufacturers are planning, EVs are not going to be a large part of Maruti car sales. But having said this, it is not as if Maruti is not making any investments in the EV arena. It is just that it is not putting all the clean energy eggs in the EV basket alone.
For the record, Suzuki Motor, the parent of Maruti Suzuki, has announced that it would invest Rs 10,440 crore in Gujarat to build a new electric car and battery factory in India.
Suzuki has already developed a Lithium-Ion battery pack production unit in a joint venture with Japanese companies Denso Corp and Toshiba at Hansalpur in Gujarat. The manufacturing is set to start by this year.
Simultaneously, according to Bhargava, Maruti will work on cars that run on compressed natural gas because they’re cleaner than petrol or diesel models and cheaper than EVs, making them a viable option for low-income consumers who want to upgrade from a two-wheeler.
Maruti has targeted a sale of 600,000 compressed natural gas cars in the year ending March 2023 versus 230,000 units the previous fiscal year. Maruti currently has nine compressed natural gas models and is planning to introduce more such variants.
Bhargava also opined that using biofuels to power passenger cars is another alternative, however the investment to make it commercially viable is lacking.
For the record, Suzuki already has a global understanding with Toyota and has unveiled plans to enter the non-IC engine vehicle business in India.
