Maruti Suzuki might be India’s largest carmaker by a huge margin but it still hasn’t played a pivotal role in the ongoing electric revolution. But Nikkei reported on Monday that the industry giant is gearing up to mark its foray in the electric vehicle segment by 2025. It is safe to assume that the first car to be electrified in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio will belong to the lower end of the spectrum. Maruti Suzuki sells the most cars in India and a major chunk of its overall sales are accounted to Alto, WagonR, Baleno and Swift. The very first electric car is expected to be in this segment.
Suzuki’s EV foray comes after the company said it would invest 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) by March 2026 for research and development in the area of automotive electrification. As part of a shift to electric-powered vehicles, Suzuki has already been offering hybrid cars in India.
Recently, a heavily updated version of the Maruti Suzuki Wagon-R was spotted testing wearing Toyota badging all around. The front end is completely redesigned and looks rather… umm cute? The grille is almost non-existent and this has to be one of its standout design traits. The first impression you might get after seeing it up front might be that it doesn’t have an ICE powerplant under the hood. The carmaker which has around 50 percent of the market share in the country, hopes to maintain its dominance by introducing EVs to its lineup in the coming years. In order to be able to price its EVs (and hybrids) aggressively, Maruti Suzuki is also building a Lithium-ion battery production plant in India with Denso and Toshiba.