The 88-year old CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Osamu Suzuki, asked from the company’s key people to set a target of 1.5 million electric car sales per year on the Indian market by the year 2030. Suzuki is present in India through its subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki and even though this is quite a bold target, there’s nothing stopping the Asian firm to reach it.
Courageous Planning Considering They Did Not Launch an Electric Car in India so Far
The plans of Osamu Suzuki seem a bit too optimistic even by Asian standards since the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese company did not launch a battery-powered car yet. However, the annual shareholders meeting that took place last month in Japan was the perfect opportunity for him to announce the plans until 2030. His son, Toshihiro Suzuki that is also the President of Suzuki Motor Corporation, was also attending this meeting and assured everyone that it is totally doable.
Translated in numbers, this means that by the year 2030, Suzuki should sell 10 million units per years from the 2.8 million units sold in the last financial year. That’s an optimistic growth even for a Japanese company since Maruti Suzuki will have to keep a pace of growth similar to the domestic growth in order to keep up.
All Hopes are Put into a New Electric Model
The plan is to control 50% of the market and reach annual sales of over 5 million units in India by 2030. More than that, Suzuki Motor Corporation took a challenge that 30% of all sold models would be electric models. Talking about this challenge, Osamu Suzuki said that he is firing up executives every day regarding this matter and he wants to be the legacy he lives the company with.
The good news for all the ambitious plans of Suzuki Motor Company comes from an all-electric vehicle that should enter the Indian market early in 2020. So far, electric car sales all around the world registered important growth, however, the plan is still quite ambitious. Suzuki plays all his cards that the new electric car will be an entirely new project and not just an electric version of a pre-existent model already on sale. That’s quite similar to gambling in Neosurf casinos Australia, it could turn out to be a profitable gamble or nor.
Suzuki and Toyota to Join Forces
In an alliance announced in 2017, it was set that Toyota and Suzuki will cooperate to develop cheaper and more-autonomous electric cars. This comes together with a global effort made by all countries to gradually stop manufacturing cars that run on fossil fuels. Of course, that’s easier said than done since there are a lot of countries that are still struggling with poverty. That’s why every country set its own deadline for this change and there are massive help programs ran by global monetary funds to encourage this shift.
Where does India Stand on Electric Car Infrastructure?
While Suzuki is working on this grandiose plan, they must not forget that India has still a lot of things to take care in order to fully be capable to sustain an electric car industry. They initially set the deadline of moving to a fully electric-car manufacturing by 2030 but then they changed their mind and said they’re still discussing the actual deadline. Charging infrastructure as well as the entire electric car manufacturing environment are still considered to be pipe dreams.
Luckily for the environment, more companies such as Kia, MG Motors, Hyundai or Volvo announced they plan to build electric cars in India. But after all the media coverage, the only manufacturers that have started production are Tata Motors and Mahinda & Mahindra. Considering that Suzuki has the biggest product portfolio in India with a total of 15 models, going to electric cars should be a big shift.
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