Will Maruti put India's EV mission on fast lane? MSIL MD & CEO believes so

Japanese carmaker to address all three pain points - range anxiety, charging infra, and resale value

When Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) rolls out its first electric car this January, it will not just introduce a new vehicle to market, but will launch a comprehensive customer support ecosystem designed to tackle three major pain points: Range anxiety, charging infrastructure, and resale value. The firm believes so.

“We will have a high-specification EV with a high-range of the order of 500 km and powered by a 60 kilowatt-hour battery... On top of that, we will come up with a range of solutions for our EV customers to remove their concerns on owning an EV. We will use the strength of our network to give confidence to the customers for after-sale support,” Hisashi Takeuchi, MD and CEO, MSIL, stated in his speech at the annual session of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

 

The company is planning to launch its first electric car during Bharat Mobility Show 2025, which will take place in January.

Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer of Marketing & Sales at MSIL, later emphasised to reporters that the company aims for “sustainable” growth in the electric vehicle market and is determined to establish itself as a key player in that segment.

“We have done some basic research. We are not just going to launch the product. We are going to provide a complete ecosystem to customers who are going to be part of this EV family. The three big concerns are range anxiety, EV charging infrastructure, the residual value of the EV after five years of usage. No one knows today what is going to be the residual value of an EV,” he explained.

Electric car sales in India have declined steadily over the past four months, as customers’ concerns regarding them are rising. Data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) shows that in August, 6,338 electric cars were sold, marking a 9.97 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) decrease. July saw a slight improvement with 7,541 units sold, but still reflected a 2.92 per cent Y-o-Y decline. June experienced a sharper 13.51 per cent Y-o-Y drop, with 6,894 units sold, while May recorded a more modest decline of 1.24 per cent with 7,638 units sold.

Banerjee said, “Whenever a new technology comes, there are always a set of early adopters. The actual demand comes after that. In EVs, we feel that if we address these three concerns, then we will have a very sustainable growth. And we want to be a major player in the EV segment.”

MSIL, during its research of electric car customers, has found that 95 per cent of electric car customers are charging at home. “Despite this, it is very important that the customer is given a peace of mind when he is doing intercity travel,” he mentioned. 

“When temperature increases, the range of an electric car drops drastically. Recently, when there were immense rains, I observed that a significant number of cars were stranded on roads and a majority of them were electric cars, as their battery charge must have finished. So, at the end of the day, there should be good charging infrastructure,” he stated.

“How do you serve the customers even when they are stranded? So we plan to come with a holistic program by which we are going to support the customers. So, we have already started working on how to develop the ecosystem,” he mentioned.

When asked what plans does Maruti have when it comes to ensure the residual value of its electric cars, he replied, “We are working on different solutions. All three concerns we are going to address.”

MSIL is extremely optimistic about an uptick in sales during the upcoming festival season, he stated, adding that the sales then would be much better than the current situation. 

The company has taken a conscious call to calibrate its dispatches to dealers, not just in July but also in August, to put its wholesales and retails at an optimum level, he mentioned. Cars dispatched to dealers are counted as wholesales. Cars sold by dealers to customers are counted as retail sales. 

SIAM right now issues monthly wholesales data of automakers. MSIL has requested SIAM to start issuing retail sales data, if all other companies could also agree, which would give indication about the actual sales.