Suzuki plans to launch electric cars in India

Japanese small car major Suzuki Motor Corporation is considering to launch electric vehicles in India via its Indian subsidiary Maruti Suzuki.

However the company is concerned as the infrastructure for electric cars is still in infant stage and a lot need to be done by the government in order to improve the network and promote electric cars in India.

Suzuki recently showcased the Swift electric vehicle hybrid at the Tokyo motor show.

Currently Mahindra-Reva is the only company in India which sell pure electric cars. Honda launched the Civic hybrid but saw a very few people interested in the car and discontinued the sale of the same. One main reason we sight for the failure of the Civic Hybrid was the steep price and also the car resembled the same as the current Civic on sale in India. On the other hand Toyota got a decent response for its Prius hybrid even though the car has a very high price of Rs. 28 lakhs.

Unless the government of India does not come with new policies which will help sell the electric cars, this segment will be see a very few buyers.

Other makes like Renault and Chevrolet also have electric technology cars but its only a matter of time when these cars will see its Indian debut.

With the demand of diesel cars very high in India, Maruti Suzuki is also lining up more diesel engine cars for the country. Maruti Suzuki has launched many cars in the LPG/CNG fuel option but onsidering the infrastructure problems faced with CNG and LPG models, introducing the electric vehicle poses even a bigger challenge.

An Suzuki official said: “Even in CNG models, there is limitation in the number of gas stations. So it is more difficult to introduce electric vehicles in India, but we will introduce at the right time and it is under consideration,” he added.

Info Source: ET