This week, Maruti Suzuki India launched eVitara, its first electric vehicle (EV) offering. India’s largest automaker is hoping its enticingly low price tag as part of a battery-as-a-subscription (BaaS) model that helps keep the upfront bill low will attract buyers.
Since it was late to the EV party, acting as a price warrior is probably its best bet. This segment has seen local manufacturers like Tata Motors and Mahindra span entry-level price slots with multiple offerings, while Hyundai and MG are key contenders too.
Maruti executives sought to explain its delayed entry by pointing to motorist concerns over battery charging facilities and service support, but perhaps the problem was that like other Japanese-owned carmakers, it was betting on hybrids.
That said, playing catch-up won’t be easy for a company that has long been used to car market leadership. For one, the BaaS model has been tried by others too but with only modest success. In this segment, competitiveness is mostly about battery technology.
This also means that Maruti will be welcomed as a debutant rather than a well-established player; but then again, this is just the kind of challenge a big automaker mustn’t shrink from.