By Swaraj Baggonkar
Suzuki Motor Corporation president Toshihiro Suzuki on Sunday announced the setting up of a new company, Suzuki R&D Centre India, a wholly-owned arm of Suzuki Japan.
“We aim to strengthen our R&D competitiveness and capabilities in new fields of technologies not only for India but also for the global markets,” Suzuki said, adding that over the last 40 years India has become the group’s most important market.
In the last fiscal, he said, Suzuki group produced about 2.8 million automobiles all over the world. “Out of those, more than 1.6 million units, or about 60%, were produced in India,” he said.
Exports from India reached a record of about 240,000 units last year, he stated further.
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Suzuki is pumping more than Rs 10,400 crore for setting up capacities for electric vehicles and EV batteries in Gujarat making it one of the first of such moves by the carmaker. The first electric vehicle will be rolled out from the plant in 2025-26.
Till that time Maruti Suzuki will sell hybrid cars (those with a petrol engine and a battery) in India in partnership with Toyota with the first one set to debut next month.
“We have started commercial production and export of lithium-ion battery cells in Gujarat. We are now preparing the production of EVs and EV batteries in Gujarat,” Suzuki said.