Speaking at his company’s end-of-year media gathering, Maruti Suzuki India limited Chairman RC Bhargava said that the company was committed to the Government’s electric car vision highlighting that Maruti Suzuki was going to deliver its first electric vehicle by 2020.
However, he did warn that making an affordable and desirable electric vehicle for India which falls at an attractive price range remains a challenge, “Making an affordable car for India remains a huge challenge vis-a-vis making an affordable small car in the United States or Europe. But this is a challenge will have to address.”
Bhargava also commented that the initial sales of electric cars in India will likely be very limited only to those who can answer the challenges of charging their cars. To explore what the issues that Indians might face while buying an electric car the company has decided to conduct a market survey.
“Before we launched the Maruti 800 and Omni in 1983 we had conducted a survey on what Indian car buyers wanted. We will do the same in this study, what do Indian consumers expect from an electric vehicleIJ” Challenges that Bhargava conceded continued to exist included a lack of charging infrastructure, parking as well as a lack of battery manufacturing facilities in India.
“We cannot become a net importer of the vital infrastructure for electric vehicles because that will defeat the purpose of ‘Make in India’”, he contended. He did add that Maruti-Suzuki will establish a lithium battery factory in India to support its electric car ambition, but if 40 per cent of sales by 2030 were to be all-electric, there will have to be many players in the space.
At the same time Bhargava did add that for the foreseeable future, the bulk of vehicles that will be sold in India will continue to run on internal combustion engines. “With eight per cent annual market growth we foresee that 71 million cars and utility vehicles will be sold in India by 2030. I believe only 14.5 million of these will be electric because it will take time for such cars to become acceptable and affordable for customers.”
However, he did add that carmakers were working overtime to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions from engines. “I believe the introduction Bharat Stage 6 emission norms will doom the small diesel engine.”