Maruti WagonR Electric & other EVs to be sold through the premium Nexa dealerships

Maruti Suzuki will see some big shuffle in the coming times. The biggest manufacturer of India has already announced that they will not offer any diesel-powered vehicles after the BS6 emission norms are implemented next year in the Indian market. Maruti Suzuki will also launch electric vehicles in the Indian market and the first of the EVs that will be launched by the manufacturer will be the WagonR EV.

According to CarnBike, Maruti Suzuki will use their premium dealership network to offer the electric vehicles in the Indian market. The Nexa dealership currently offers quite a few vehicles belonging to different segments in the Indian market. The offerings from the brand include Maruti Suzuki Ignis, Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross. There are more than 250 Nexa dealerships across the length and breadth of the country that will be utilised to offer the new range of vehicles.

Since the price of the EV models is expected to be more premium than the regular cars in the Indian market, Maruti Suzuki will offer a premium experience to the customers via the Nexa channel. Maruti Suzuki had set-up the Nexa retail sales channel to offer a premium experience to the customers and currently sells only premium vehicles in its line-up through the new channel. Since the customers are expected to pay a more premium price on the electric cars, Maruti Suzuki will use the premium channel of their network.

Maruti Suzuki started testing the international version of the WagonR EV on the Indian roads sometime back. There are 50 units of the Suzuki WagonR EV on the Indian roads that are in the different corners of India. The data collected from these vehicles will be used to design the Indian-spec WagonR EV, which will be launched in the Indian market next year.

The company will also start manufacturing Lithium Ion batteries for the EVs in the Indian market from 2020. The development of the EVs in India, Toyota Motor Company will help the brand. Recently, Toyota launched the Glanza, which is based on the Maruti Suzuki Baleno. In return, Toyota will help the Indian manufacturer to develop hybrid and electric cars for the Indian market.

The base price of the Maruti Suzuki WagonR EV is expected to be priced at a round Rs 8 lakh. The specifications of the WagonR EV are not known but it will offer a minimum of 200 km of range on a single charge. It will also get a fast charging option. Later, Maruti Suzuki will also offer EV models based on other regular models in their line-up.