Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off the first production models of Suzuki Motor Corporation’s first electric passenger vehicle the e-Vitara at Maruti-Suzuki’s Hansalpur plant outside Ahmedabad in Gujarat. He also inaugurated India’s first automotive-grade Lithium-Ion cell and electrode manufacturing facility at the Toshiba-Denso-Suzuki Gujarat (TDSG) facility located beside the vehicle manufacturing facility.
Speaking at the launch, the PM said that the new vehicle represented a significant milestone in the Make In India project as this vehicle will be, “Made in India for the world,” with exports to over 100 countries.
The new cell manufacturing facility he said would play a key in <Atmanirbhar Bharat></i> and he mentioned how hybrid technology was vital for India to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions adding that the Government was also working towards addressing the key concerns around rare-earth magnets which are vital for electric vehicles.
He also highlighted how the Hansalpur facility, where the ground was broken in 2012, when he was still Chief Minister of Gujarat was a cornerstone of the Indo-Japanese relationship and how the two nations are made for each other and hoped that Japan would continue to play a key role in the key Viksit Bharat @ 2047 initiative. Modi is scheduled to travel to Japan in a few days.
At the start of the event, Toshihiro Suzuki, representative director and president, Suzuki Motor Corporation, the parent company of Maruti-Suzuki said that the Japanese firm would be investing an estimated Rs 70,000 crore in India over the coming six years to expand production at Hansalpur to over one million vehicles per annum as well at other plants such as at Kharkoda in Haryana. The expansion would include expansion of the electric vehicle lines going forward as sales of the e-Vitara are expected to begin in India soon.