Toyota’s top brass confirms plans to launch a compact BEV (battery electric vehicle) with Suzuki for the Indian market.

The EV will be shared by Toyota and Suzuki for India.

Expected to launch only after the WagonR-based EV, which could come in 2020.

Toyota’s EV likely to be based on the WagonR-based EV that Maruti is currently testing. 

Toyota Motors and Maruti Suzuki are working on a compact battery electric vehicle (BEV), which they will launch in India soon. Not much is known about it as yet, but it could launch in India by 2021. 

Shigeki Tareshi, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corp said, “India is, of course, one of the countries we have in mind for the introduction. Toyota is large in Japan but has a limited presence in India. Maruti Suzuki is large in India… with Suzuki, we will explore the possibilities of BEVs (in India). We will start with a compact BEV at an early stage… since we are working (on it) with Suzuki, I cannot share the timeline.” 

Toyota and Suzuki had signed an MoU in 2017 and announced a capital alliance a few months back. They had established that the two brands would be collaborating for the development of electric cars and autonomous driving technologies among several other projects. 

So far, Maruti has been testing 50 units of JDM (Japanese domestic market) WagonR EVs in varied Indian conditions. The Maruti WagonR-based EV is expected to launch in 2020 with fast-charging capabilities as well. This WagonR’s Heartect platform will likely also underpin the upcoming Toyota BEV when it comes to India. It could also be a rebadged or a slightly different version of the Maruti EV. 

The upcoming Toyota EV should deliver a claimed range of at least 200km for relevancy in the future. Tata Motors recently launched a high-range version of the Tigor EV, which claims a range of 213km per charge. Upcoming EVs such as the Mahindra XUV300 and Tata Nexon are also expected to deliver more than 200km of range per charge.  

The first result of the Toyota-Suzuki partnership has been the Glanza hatchback, which was launched with a mild-hybrid engine. It’s powered by a 1.2-litre petrol engine, which is paired with an integrated starter generator.