Maruti looks to set up holistic ecosystem for buyers as it gears up for EV foray

NEW DELHI: The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India is looking to establish a holistic ecosystem for electric vehicle buyers as it gears up to introduce its first battery-powered model early next year.

The company will look at setting up charging infrastructure for EVs and also other critical elements like having resale avenues for such models.

"We are not only going to launch the product, we are going to basically provide a complete ecosystem for the customers who are going to be part of the electric vehicle family," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) Partho Banerjee told reporters on the sidelines of the 64th SIAM annual session here.

He noted that the biggest concern for EV users is regarding the range.

"Secondly, it is the EV infrastructure and thirdly it is about the residual value of the vehicle after five years," Banerjee said.

He stated that the company's first EV model, a mid-sized SUV, would be unveiled at the Bharat Mobility show in January next year.

The model would come with a driving range of over 500 kms, he added.

On sales expectations from this year's festive season, Banerjee said: "In festival time we are going to see some positivity...we are very optimistic about it." He further said: "The expectation is it will be much, much better than the current situation. We will be seeing upside from here." When asked about rising inventory levels, Banerjee said the company has taken a conscious call to calibrate dispatches to the dealers.

"We have reduced dispatches to our dealers for a very simple reason as we want to basically calibrate the retails along with the wholesale so that we have a healthy network stock," he added.

At the beginning of this month, the automaker had a network stock of 36 days, he said.

He also noted that the company's rural penetration has risen to an all-time high of 50 per cent.