This week, the electric vehicle (EV) market witnessed a big shift as India’s two largest carmakers embraced the battery-as-a-service (BaaS) model. Following Maruti Suzuki’s entry with the eVitara on Tuesday, Tata Motors launched the new Punch EV on Friday with a battery rental scheme.
The entry-level model of the eVitara costs Rs 15.99 lakh upfront. But under BaaS, the price drops to just Rs 10.99 lakh, plus running cost of Rs 3.99 per km. The telematics system of the eVitara will track the number of kilometres driven, and the car owner will be billed each month based on that usage. If the car is driven, let’s say, 1,000 km, the BaaS bill will be Rs 3,990.
Maruti jumps in
Maruti Suzuki also launched a package to eliminate both range and resale anxiety, such as assured buyback of the car after three years at 60% of its original price, eight-year battery warranty, free home charger, and one year of free charging.
Similarly, the Punch EV, priced Rs 9.69 lakh upfront, is available under BaaS for Rs 6.49 lakh, and a running cost of Rs 2.6 per km.
It comes with a lifetime battery warranty covering unlimited kilometres.
These moves follow the disruptive path carved out by the MG Windsor. In 2025, the Windsor dominated the EV landscape, selling 46,735 units and capturing nearly a quarter of India’s total EV passenger vehicle sales (197,098 units).
The secret to MG’s success was not just the machine, but also mathematics — by decoupling the battery cost, MG was able to market the Windsor, a big car, at a psychological floor of Rs 9.99 lakh.
What did Anurag Mehrotra say?
However, Anurag Mehrotra, MD of JSW MG Motor India, told FE that only 12% of total EVs sold were actually purchased under the BaaS scheme.
If the adoption rate is so low, how did it drive record sales? “BaaS is the hook; peace of mind closes the deal,” a Delhi-based MG dealer told FE. According to the dealer, the sub-Rs 10 lakh price drives massive footfalls. Once in the showroom, the salesperson uses ‘EV calculators’ to show that a driver covering 90,000 km over five years saves Rs 5.8 lakh in fuel costs.
When told about the variable monthly bill, 88% of customers eventually choose full ownership, but the BaaS pricing was the initial lure. Other manufacturers are now racing to replicate this model.
Hero MotoCorp has proved that BaaS can work in the two-wheeler space as well. Its EV arm, Vida, saw monthly average sales more than double to 12,567 units after launching the VX2 with BaaS in July 2025. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is also gearing up to deploy BaaS and assured buybacks for its upcoming Ebella EV. “Resale value anxiety is real. BaaS and buyback assurance are tools to reduce that uncertainty,” said Vikram Gulati, executive V-P at TKM.