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Informist, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026

 

--Maruti Suzuki: Continue to face issues with production capacity

--CONTEXT: Comments by Maruti Suzuki mgmt in press conference 
 

NEW DELHI – Seen as a late entrant to the still nascent electric vehicle market in India, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Tuesday admitted it first focused on building an ecosystem around its electric sports utility vehicle e Vitara to address customers' anxiety. "The industry whispered about our silence. I would like to say that we were trying to address the customer concerns," the company's Senior Executive Officer of Marketing and Sales Partho Banerjee told reporters in a virtual press conference.

 

"We built the EV ecosystem to systematically take care of every barrier to the EV adaptation, be it the public charging infrastructure, be it the concern of resale value, be it the after sales and service network, be it the product range," Banerjee said. Maruti Suzuki had unveiled the e Vitara first in early 2025 and on Tuesday, annouced the introductory price of a single variant of this model. Priced using the battery-as-a-service model, the Delta variant of the car will cost INR 1.10 million and an additional cost of INR 3.99 per kilometre for its battery on an introductory basis. The Delta variant is only the base variant of the model, with prices of other variants expected to be announced in coming days.

 

"The EV penetration has been hovering around four to five percent for the last two years, and we think it is the time this market will take an exponential leap," Banerjee said. The electric passenger vehicle market is currently dominated by Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd., which has a share of around 43%. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., which launched its first electric SUV in early 2023, has a 20% market share.

 

Battery-as-a-service model cuts down the ownership cost of the vehicle by separating cost of the car and cost of battery. Maruti Suzuki launched the e Vitara with two battery pack options -- 61 kilo-watt hours and 49 kilo-watt hours. These will come with a warranty of eight years or 160,000 kilometres, whichever is earlier. The car itself comes with a warranty of three years, which can be extended up to eight years through an additional fee. The introductory prices will be on offer till Mar. 31.

 

Banerjee acknowledged that the company still faces production constraints, but did not specify if these will impact deliveries of the e Vitara. "We are having a line in Gujarat which has a capacity of one lakh (100,000) but we have to cater to the demand of our OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), export market needs. At the same time, on the same line, we are producing the Fronx, which has also got a huge waiting period," Banerjee said.

 

The company is currently trying to calibrate how to keep the balance between the export and domestic market. Maruti Suzuki commenced exports of e Vitara in August last year from its Gujarat plant. "So that problem (capacity constraints) will be there till the month of July. After the month of July, we are going to expand the line capacity and we should be able to take care of our customers," Banerjee said.

 

For the December quarter, Maruti Suzuki had reported net profit of INR 37.94 billion on revenue of INR 498.92 billion. Tuesday, its shares closed 0.9% higher on the National Stock Exchange at INR 15,179.  End

 

Reported by Anand JC

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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