Maruti Suzuki India Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO, Hisashi Takeuchi said that will launch its first electric vehicle (EV) by 2025, the company is testing 50 electric Wagon R units in India. “The weather conditions here are tough for using EVs, so we have to make them completely safe,” Takeuchi told reporters.
The CEO said that while the Indian EV market is growing, it is very small and the market share of EVs will be only 10% by 2030. “We have already announced and started our work to set up our factory for EV and localize the battery, Takeuchi said. Suzuki Motor Corporation announced last month that it would invest Rs 10,445 crore (150 billion yen) in Gujarat by 2026 to locally manufacture electric vehicles and batteries.
The CEO said that in order to have 50% overall market share in India, the company needs to have a bigger presence in the SUV segment. “We have a pipeline to make a strong comeback in the SUV space,” said Takeuchi, adding the SUV market accounts for about 40% of the total market. “We are very strong in the small car and MPV segment. Not necessarily every segment should have more than 50% share. But still, we need some degree of market share in the SUV segment as well,” said Takeuchi. The company had a market share of 51% in the PV segment in FY 2019 as well as FY 2020. According to the CEO, the next Semiconductors shortages have subsided in a few months, but there won’t be any significant improvement. “There is still a shortage and I think it will continue for some time,” Takeuchi said. He added that although the unavailability of diesel models made the company more vulnerable. There has been a strong recovery with CNG models now accounting for around 17% of total sales. The company sold around 163,000 CNG cars in FY2011 and 235,000 units last year, an increase of 44% “In the long run, we see CNG as a viable option. The government is now expanding CNG stations across the country from 3,300 to over 12,000. With this strong government support, we feel that the CNG market There will be further expansion and we may also increase the volumes,” he said.
Maruti’s market share in the domestic passenger vehicle (PV) segment declined to 43% in FY22 from 48% in the previous year due to lack of chips. The company currently has around 300,000 bookings pending. “Our order backlog is increasing right now as semiconductor shortage has hit production. Removing them is a big challenge for us right now,” Takeuchi said. He pointed out that 90% of semiconductors are going into the electronics industry.
Maruti’s total production of passenger vehicles, including domestic models and export models, stood at 1.62 million, up 15% in FY22 over the previous year. The company’s market share in the domestic PV segment fell due to semiconductor shortages, although demand was strong, Takeuchi said. “Last year, chips were not enough for the domestic model, but were available for the export model,” the CEO said. The company recorded the highest ever export of 238,376 units in FY 2012. In comparison, the company had exported 96,139 units in FY11.