Maruti Suzuki has just teased its first electric car – the eVitara, which is slated for launch in January 2025, at the Bharat Mobility Expo. The eVitara will be produced at Suzuki’s Gujarat manufacturing facility, for both Indian and export markets.
Suzuki will also build the Toyota Urban Electric SUV, essentially a badge engineered eVitara, for Indian and global markets from the same factory. The Toyota EV is expected to arrive a few months after the eVitara.
The eVitara was unveiled earlier this year, where much of its specifications were revealed. However, there are India-specific changes likely, to keep the car cost competitive, and also suitable for market conditions here.
The India-specific car will be shown at the Bharat Mobility Expo. Bookings are expected to commence at roughly the same time, along with the price announcement. Maruti is looking to sell around 1,000 units of the eVitara in India each month – a modest target.
The general expectation is that Maruti Suzuki will price the eVitara between Rs. 20-25 lakh. However, the Mahindra BE 6 and XEV 9e – and their super competitive price tags – have really upset the applecart for other electric cars.
So, the pressure is clearly on Maruti Suzuki, to come up with a price point that makes the eVitara a very compelling proposition. It’s our argument that the electric car should be priced at about Rs. 15 lakh for it to make a sizeable dent in the small but rapidly growing electric vehicle space in India.
Coming to the eVitara’s mechanicals, the electric SUV is expected to get two battery packs: 49 kWh and 60 kWh. The highlight of both these battery packs is that they’re the Blade type from BYD. This should make them very robust, long lasting and also high-range.
Talking of range, the smaller battery pack is expected to offer about 300-320 kilometers of real world range while the larger battery pack should give the eVitara a realistic range of about 400 Kms.
Internationally, the electric SUV gets multiple powertrains. The entry level unit is a front wheel drive, 142 Bhp-189 Nm motor while a higher powered front wheel drive variant gets 172 Bhp-189 Nm. There’s a top of the line trim with all wheel drive, where there are two electric motors – one on each axle.
The all wheel drive version makes 184 Bhp-300 Nm, and this variant should be the most thrilling one to drive given the numbers as well as its go-anywhere ability. However, it remains to be seen whether Maruti offers all three trims in India given the low demand for all wheel drive cars here.
For now, Maruti Suzuki is busy setting up charging outlets across India. The automaker is targeting 25,000 charging points across the length and breadth of India, and if they manage to actually pull this off, it’ll easily be the most extensive electric car charging network in the country. This factor alone can help boost sales of the eVitara as charging infrastructure or the lack of it continues to be a big bottleneck for greater adoption of electric vehicles.
India will be a production hub for the eVitara as Toyota is quite bullish on positioning the badge engineered version as its most affordable electric car globally. While the eVitara will see Maruti testing waters in the EV space, a slew of electric cars are likely to be launched from the Maruti stable in the next couple of years.
Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said,
The e VITARA is a testament of our unwavering commitment to sustainable mobility and technological innovation. With decades of automotive expertise, we have combined advanced electric technology with a customer-first approach to deliver something truly transformative. At Maruti Suzuki, we have always believed that to promote EV adoption, we need to create a holistic ecosystem that simplifies customers’ battery electric vehicle ownership journey. A critical barrier to the adoption of EVs is the lack of accessible charging. To tackle this issue, we are committed to introduce a reliable and comprehensive EV ecosystem alongside the e VITARA. This will include home charging solutions as well as a nationwide network of fast chargers available at Maruti Suzuki dealerships and service touchpoints. Our goal is to make EVs accessible, convenient, and appealing to a broader set of customers, and this is exactly what we have set out to achieve with the e VITARA.
