Sumant Banerji New Delhi Last Updated: September 6, 2017 | 18:23 IST
India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has said it will not hold back on electric vehicles once the infrastructure is ready for it in India.
India is the largest market for Suzuki globally with Maruti selling close to 1.5 million cars annually. The company has been in the middle of a purple patch in recent times. In the first 5 months of this fiscal its sales have grown by 26.7 per cent, far outpacing the industry. Its share has also been an outperformer on the Bombay Stock Exchange growing by 47 per cent this year. Analysts say there is still sufficient tail winds for the price to grow by another 18 per cent in the rest of the year.
"For the next 3-5 years the auto industry in India should grow in double digits and I am fairly confident that Maruti, with the support of Suzuki, will certainly grow in the double digits," said chairman R C Bharagava at the firm's 36th annual general board meeting in Delhi on Tuesday.
"We should be able to achieve our target of (selling) 2 million units by 2020 and a further 2.5 million and 3 million cars in the future."
Experts have expressed doubt in the past about Suzuki's weakness in electric vehicles as compared to compatriots like Honda and Nissan or rivals like Hyundai and Volkswagen and that it may be a major roadblock in its long term growth prospects. India is increasingly looking at an electric only future and the government has said it wants only electric vehicles to be sold in the country by 2030.
"Government has announced program to rapidly promote the use of electric vehicles in India. It is a very laudable policy as it will greatly enhance the usage and over time lead to a cleaner environment," Bhargava said.
"Your company will not hold back in the segment. As soon as we can determine the customer preference we will come up with such models. In the meantime, focus will be to increase fuel efficiency (in current models) and bring in new technologies," he added.
