Maruti Suzuki is gearing up to introduce its first electric offering, the eVX, in the Indian market sometime next year. The ground-up electric SUV will be built at the carmaker's Gujarat plant, and it will also be exported to several markets.
The eVX is being jointly developed with Toyota, which will also have its own version that will go on sale in 2025.
Made-in-India Maruti eVX will be exported overseas
In a bid to achieve an aggressive price point, the eVX will have a high amount of localised content, including batteries. Speaking at the India EV Conclave organised by our sister publication Autocar Professional in Chennai, Rahul Bharti, executive director of Corporate Affairs at Maruti Suzuki, said, "It is not enough to simply launch a model with imported batteries and motors. Our plan is that when we launch an EV, it should be locally made. So we will have a localised battery and motor in our EV and to build scale, we will also export the model from India.”
However, it remains to be seen how aggressive Maruti Suzuki will be while pricing its born-EV SUV against rival Tata Nexon EV, which is based on a modified combustion engine platform. Apart from the Nexon EV and the MG ZS EV, the eVX will also see stiff competition from the upcoming Creta EV that is expected to go on sale around the same time frame.
Made-in-India batteries already being exported
At its Gujarat facility, Maruti Suzuki is manufacturing batteries for hybrid vehicles and is expected to build batteries for EVs too. Exports to other countries are already underway and are expected to reach Rs 1,000 crore by next year.