[TusharK]

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation will be setting up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing unit in Gujarat. The factory will be built in Hansalpur near Ahmedabad.



The lithium-ion battery plant is being setup in collaboration with Denso and Toshiba and is expected to start production by 2020. A total investment of Rs. 1,151 crore has been planned for this unit. Toshiba will manufacture the cell module using technologies developed by Denso. These batteries will be used in Suzuki's electric cars in the near future.

The Japanese company also has a wholly-owned car plant in Gujarat with an annual production of 2.5 lakh units. The plant makes vehicles for its Indian joint venture - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL). Suzuki Motor Corporation is also setting up a new car assembly unit - Plant B with an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh units which will begin operations by 2019. It is also planning Plant C with a similar capacity taking the total production capacity of the plant to 7.5 lakh units. Currently, MSIL, where Suzuki holds 56 per cent stake, can produce 15 lakh cars at its factory locations in Haryana.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

[abhishek46]

There you go.
This is why they are the number 1 here. They "think" ahead and actually implement it.

Just few days back, there were announcements regarding the push for electrics, and now we see that MSIL was already working on it, silently!

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation will be setting up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing unit in Gujarat.

Could this be a knee jerk reaction to the threat of being bulldozed by the Government? Only Maruti can answer this million dollar question.

In my area, young men desist from purchasing new two/four wheelers immediately prior to and after their marriage. The reason is interestingly simple: people tend to construe that purchase as a form of dowry! Timing, dear friends, is always important.

Denso, Toshiba and Suzuki will certainly make a good combination. Provided the batteries produced there are of decent quality, this is a venture that can hardly fail. That being said, Maruti will do well to keep other options for purchase and integration of batteries from other manufacturers too. As of now VW and Maruti have the first mover advantage in terms of access to batteries on a large scale. They will do well to exploit this.

Another point worth noting is the establishment of the third plant by Maruti. Will this be an exclusively Electric Vehicle manufacturing plant?

Definitely, interesting times are ahead.

[RaghuVis]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Could this be a knee jerk reaction to the threat of being bulldozed by the Government? Only Maruti can answer this million dollar question.

Don't think so. A company as big as Suzuki would have invested years in research before announcing the factory and inaugurate the plant foundation by prime minister's of both nation!

The Statement by road transport minister was also interpreted sensibly and positively by Mr Bhargava. Shows the maturity needed to be sitting so high up the levels.

As you said very interesting times ahead!

[Reinhard]

When I first saw the headline in times earlier today, I was completely baffled as to why Suzuki wants to make batteries now when there are solid established brands like Exide & Amaron which will be tough to take on!!!

After some moments did I realize that it was looking to the future and we are talking about Li-Ion here. Quite a good news. (And another step towards renaming TeamBHP to TeamKW or TeamWH in future...)

I'm sure a lot of business analysis and market trend study went into this in the last decade or at least last 5 years. This was just fine-timed to align with Mr. Abe's visit to India. Highlights the Indo-Jap business growth further for the news media.

Time for others to follow...

[rajshenoy]

Could this be the answer to Mr musk saying lack of eco system here in India? He was specifically talking about the batteries isn't it

Jokes apart, I think mass production of these cells should boost our EV sales, and might translate into more such investment

[anand.shankar]

This is great news, especially because MSIL has started this. The largest Auto manufacturer with close to 50% market share adopting EVs is sure to force all the others follow the suit.

Hopefully, if the overall infrastructure is also developed simultaneously we can look forward to a cleaner place to live in the near future.

[androdev]

Gone are the days when Maruti was selling 800 and WagonR type of cars and other companies thought they could just walk over Maruti. I am very impressed with how a company that didn't do anything interesting for many years during the hay days of 800 has become so responsive and managed to protect it's turf under intense competition from global giants. Just when I thought the EV adoption will pose a serious thereat to the status quo, I see this master stroke. I am not a Maruti customer (except for the mandatory 800 first car) but it surely is a very well run company.

[GTO]

On a related note, we shouldn't forget that the Tata Group already manufactures automotive batteries in MH (link). They have a tieup with GS Yuasa which has announced big EV battery plans - Reuters Article.

If Tata wants to sell EVs, this partnership could come in handy.