Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Giving a major push to manufacture affordable electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries in India, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget for the fiscal 2022-23 last month, Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), parent of India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), will invest Rs. 10,440 crore in Gujarat.
This is part of Japan’s fresh investments worth USD 42 billion (Rs. 320,300 crore) over the next five years, announced during the last week’s visit of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after his meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
A third of the Rs. 10,440 crore investment (Rs.3,100 crore) will increase EV manufacturing capacity at Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG) by 2025, while Rs. 7,300 crore will be invested to set up a plant for making batteries for EVs in 2026. Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu will use the remaining resources to set up a vehicle recycling plant that will begin functioning in 2025, according to reports.
“Suzuki’s future mission is to achieve carbon neutrality with small cars,” Toshihiro Suzuki, Representative Director and President of SMC, said at the India-Japan Economic Forum on March 19.
“We (SMC) will continue active investment in India to realize the goal of a Self-Reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat),” he said.
Maruti Suzuki said it would launch its first EV in the Indian market by 2025. They will initially produce these vehicles at SMG, which has received approval from the government under the Rs. 25,938 crore Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.
Apart from the EVs, Maruti Suzuki is also working on various environment-friendly alternatives such as CNG, ethanol, and flex-fuel, for reducing oil imports.