With a 'fresher' drive to the EV road, Maruti looks to do what it knows best

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. After four decades of shaping India’s mass car market, Maruti Suzuki is drawing on an old playbook as it prepares to enter the electric vehicle (EV) segment, choosing to build customer confidence and supporting infrastructure before launching its debut model. The move comes even as rivals scale up sales and questions persist over whether it has arrived late to the electric transition.

It's debut EV model eVitara is likely to be commercially launched in the January-March quarter, with bookings slated to open soon. Before that, the country’s largest carmaker is looking to address key concerns that executives say have kept EV penetration low. Maruti is working to address three main concerns: lack of charging infrastructure, inadequate trained service technicians and low resale value through targeted strategies, according to a top executive.

In an interview with Mint, Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer of marketing and sales, said it did not make sense to launch the product in a market that did not address infrastructure and resale concerns of buyers. Banerjee said the company has established 2,000 charging stations with a target of 1 lakh by 2030, announced an assured buyback scheme to assuage concerns on resale value and trained more than 150,000 service providers across the country. “We have been here in this market for 40 years, but we are just starting like a fresher.

We are also moving like new companies. Forty years ago, we had also moved like this," Banerjee said, adding that the company will first let customers test-drive the vehicle before taking bookings. Maruti Suzuki was established in 1981 and rolled out its first car, Maruti 800, two years later.