By Aditi Shah
HANSALPUR, India (Reuters) -Japan’s Suzuki Motor will invest 700 billion rupees ($8 billion) in India over the next five to six years, its chairman said on Tuesday, as production began on the automaker’s first electric vehicle.
Suzuki is aiming to defend its lead in the world’s third-largest car market, which is also its biggest market by sales and revenue through its majority stake in Maruti Suzuki.
India will be the global production hub for Suzuki Motor’s electric cars, with plans to export vehicles to 100 countries, including back to Japan and markets in Europe, despite a slowdown in sales of EVs.
Maruti started commercial production of the mid-sized “e Vitara” SUV at its Gujarat plant on Tuesday. The vehicle will compete with Hyundai’s Creta and Mahindra’s XEV 9e.
The plant is set to become one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturing hubs, with a planned capacity of 1 million units, said Suzuki Motor chairman and president Toshihiro Suzuki.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the event marking the start of EV production, said the plant was a “big leap” towards the government’s ‘Make in India’ goal.
Modi, who plans to visit Japan next week, cited Maruti as a great example of the strong business and personal ties between India and Japan.
He again urged people to buy local products, saying that included anything made on Indian soil, irrespective of where the investment came from, including Maruti’s cars.
($1 = 87.5060 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aditi Shah and Kashish Tandon; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Kirsten Donovan)
