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Auto Expo 2023: Maruti Suzuki unveils eVX electric SUV concept

Maruti already has hybrid as well as CNG models in the market

MarutiEVX-sanjay-ahlawat Toshihiro Suzuki, reperesentative director & president, Suzuki Motors Corporation, and Hisashi Takeuchi, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd showcase Maruti EVX at the Auto Expo, in Greater Noida, UP | Sanjay Ahlawat

Maruti has finally bit the electric vehicle (EV) apple. India’s biggest automaker has come out with an electric car at the Auto Expo 2023. Titled eVX, at least for now, this is the first global unveiling of an EV offering from the Gurugram giant. This is because Maruti Suzuki has always stuck to the argument that electric cars are only one of the ways to get to climate goals and zero-emission norms.

But, hold your horses. It’s a concept car and will take years before you get to see a Maruti EV on Indian roads.

“Electric is just one of the ways, Maruti’s senior executive officer Shashank Srivastava told THE WEEK. “We believe India’s road to electrification is through hybridisation.”

Maruti already has hybrid as well as CNG models in the market, sticking to its strategic line that it will take time before India takes to EVs in a big way. And, in the meanwhile, CNG and other cleaner fuels will do equally well to conform to stricter emission norms.

The eVX claims a driving range of 550km on a single charge, and was designed at the parent company, Suzuki, in Japan.

The company does have big ‘slow and steady’ plans for EVs, though. It is set to invest Rs 10,000 crore in battery technology and produce EVs at its new plant in Gujarat.

For the time-being, it’s betting on non-EV models. The company is planning to launch two new SUV models, a segment it is weak in and has grown in popularity in recent times, at the Auto Expo tomorrow.

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