PUNE: Suzuki Motor will invest $1.3 billion (Rs 10,445 cr) into electric vehicle and battery production in Gujarat, the Japanese car maker said on Sunday, as it accelerates long-term plans to achieve carbon neutrality.
“Suzuki Motor Corpor-ation signed an MOU with Gujarat, to invest approximately 150 billion yen (about Rs 104.4 billion ) for local manufacturing of electric vehicles (BEV) and BEV batteries,” the automaker said in a statement.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on this was signed on March 19 at the India-Japan Economic Forum held in New Delhi, in the presence of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the staement said.
Toshihiro Suzuki, representative director and president, Suzuki Motor Corporation and Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO at Maruti Suzuki India, were joined by eminent senior government personnel of India and Japan at the ceremony.
“Suzuki's future mission is to achieve carbon neutrality with small cars,” Suzuki said at the Forum, adding that ‘we will continue active investment in India to realise self-reliant India (Atma-nirbhar Bharat).”
Maruti Suzuki has plans to enter the electric vehicle market in India by 2025. The company, with a 50 per cent mass car market share, had maintained that at the current prices it would be difficult to sell affordable EVs at a mass scale.
The company will also build a plant manufacturing EV battery on land near its Gujarat plant, while a joint venture—Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India—will construct a vehicle recycling facility at the same site, the statement said.
Under the MoU, the company's wholly owned arm Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG) will invest Rs 7,300 crore for the construction of a plant for BEV batteries at a land neighbouring SMG's existing plant by 2026.
Also, SMG will invest another Rs 3,100 crore for increasing the production capacity for BEV manufacturing by 2025, the statement said.
Moreover, another group firm Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India will be investing Rs 45 crore on construction of a vehicle recycling plant by 2025.
In November 2019, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho Group had announced a joint venture for vehicle dismantling and recycling and set up a unit in Noida, UP.
The facility, spread over 10,993 square metre has a capacity to scrap and recycle over 24,000 ELVs (end-of-life vehicles) annually.
At present, the Suzuki group has an installed cumulative capacity to produce about 22 lakh conventional internal combustion engine cars per annum across two facilities of its main subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) in Haryana, along with SMG's facility in Gujarat.
Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest car maker, with a 50 per cent market share, has the capacity to produce around 15 lakh units every year at its Gurgaon and Manesar plants in Haryana.
SMG, which supplies vehicles exclusively to MSI, has an additional installed production capacity of 7.5 lakh units per annum.
