Upcoming Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV to offer fast charging

Maruti Suzuki will soon launch the all-new WagonR EV in the Indian market. To understand the Indian road conditions better and how they affect the performance of the Electric Vehicles, Maruti Suzuki started testing 50 units of WagonR EV in the market last year. The WagonR EV hatchbacks on the test are not Indian-spec, but Maruti Suzuki will develop the Indian vehicle from the data and feedback they get from the test cars.

As per the latest report on ACI, Maruti Suzuki will equip the upcoming WagonR with the fast charging. It will be in addition to the regular Alternate Current (AC) charging, which is used to charge from the regular household electricity supply but the charges the vehicle slowly. The fast charging system will use the Direct Current (DC), which will be available at specialised charging stations.

The official specifications of the upcoming Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV are not yet known. It will be different from the WagonR EV in the Japanese market. However, as per the report, the Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV will take around seven hours to charge completely from zero. In the DC fast charging mode, the Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV can reach 80 per cent charge under an hour, which is quite fast.

The current Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV on test in India gets two charging ports. One in front for the regular AC charging and a specialised DC socket in the rear for fast charging. With fast charging, the all-new WagonR can become quite popular among the fleet car owners, who will have to spend less time charging the vehicles and will get more time on the road.

In the future, electric vehicles are expected to get a push through various government policies. The government is planning to provide a rebate of up to Rs. 50,000 and lower the interest rates on EVs to make them accessible. The current plan is to take the current percentage of EVs on the road to 15% in the next five years. These benefits will be based on the size of the battery in the vehicle. There are also other plans to exempt the electric cars from any kind of parking charges and toll taxes in India. Also, there is a plan to waive off the registration charges on the EVs, which will make them much more affordable than the regular vehicles.

There are many manufacturers that are waiting to launch electric vehicles in the Indian market in the coming time. Tata is expected to launch the EV version of the Tiago and Tigor for private car buyers. Also, international manufacturers like Nissan and Hyundai will launch their EVs in the market. Even Mahindra has announced the plan to launch the electric KUV and the electric XUV 300 in the Indian market in the next two years.