EVs still seen as second or third cars, says Maruti Suzuki; plans 100-city charging network to drive adoption

Even though the share of electric vehicles in overall car sales has inched up in the last six months, customers are opting for them largely as second or third vehicles limiting widespread adoption in the local market, a top executive at the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki said.

Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki, said, “The share of electric cars in total sales of passenger vehicles increased to 4.5% (in July) from about 2.5% last year. But the base is still small. Customers are mostly buying EVs as second or third cars, not as the first one. It is a chicken and egg situation, till the time adequate public charging network is in place, customers are unlikely to use electric cars as a primary vehicle.”

Low utilisation of public charging stations, on the other hand, make it difficult for operators to invest in further expansion.

Maruti Suzuki is working on setting up a network of charging stations across top 100 cities in the country to ease customer anxiety. “Most car companies today are driving in EVs which have range of about 500 km. What we have noticed is also, most electric car owners prefer to charge their EVs at home. However, they do want access to public charging stations as an assurance that they will not get stranded on the road in the event the battery gets depleted. Equally important for adoption is the time required for charging a vehicle at these stations, and that these are in working conditions”, Banerjee said.

While Maruti Suzuki is focusing on setting up charging networks to smoother intra-city commute for customers, Korean rival Hyundai has announced plans to beef up the number of charging stations on major highways to make hassle-free inter-city travel for EV owners. Hyundai also plans to set up 600 DC fast-chargers across the country by 2032, Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer at HMIL told ET recently, adding that 89 of these are already operational along major highways including Delhi-Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune and Bengaluru-Chennai.

There are about 26,000 charging stations available across the country, as per data available with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). EV sales in calendar year 2024 were 99,165, according to data collated by the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Associations. Penetration of EV 4Ws in total car sales stood at 2.4% in this period.

Overall, Maruti Suzuki has planned for launch four electric vehicles by the turn of the decade, starting with the e Vitara in FY26. The company expects EV sales to increase to account for about 15% of its sales by 2030.