Maruti Suzuki all set to establish comprehensive EV ecosystem

Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest manufacturer, is seeking to establish a comprehensive ecosystem for electric vehicle buyers as it prepares to launch its first battery-powered model early next year.

In addition to establishing charging infrastructure, the company will also look for other key components like having resale opportunities for such models.

"We are not only going to launch the product, but we are going to provide a complete ecosystem for the customers who will be part of the electric vehicle family," citing Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) Partho Banerjee at the 64th SIAM annual session, rediff Moneywiz reported.

He mentioned that the main concern for EV customers is the range.

"Secondly, it is the EV infrastructure and thirdly it is about the residual value of the vehicle after five years," according to Banerjee.

He further revealed that the company's first EV vehicle, a mid-sized SUV, will be presented at the Bharat Mobility event in January of next year. The vehicle will have a driving range of more than 500 km, he noted.

On sales projections for this year's holiday season, Banerjee stated, "In festival time, we are going to see some positivity...we are very optimistic." He further remarked, "The assumption is that it would be far better than the current scenario. We will see positive results from here."

When asked about increased inventory levels, Banerjee said the business made a strategic decision to adjust deliveries to dealers. "We have reduced dispatches to our dealers for a very simple reason as we want to calibrate the retails along with the wholesale so that we have a healthy network stock," he elaborated.