Suzuki Motorcycle India is mulling testing one of its electric scooters on Indian roads in 2020 on a pilot basis, reports Economic Times. The company, however, is reportedly sceptical about the development of charging infrastructure in the country to enable the electric mobility vehicles to grow.
The Japanese automaker’s four-wheeler venture Maruti Suzuki Motors is already working jointly with Toyota to develop an electric vehicle for the Indian market. If and when the electric scooters get launched in the country, the two group companies could work together to share some of the common resources. These details have come through Suzuki Motorcycle India’s managing director Satoshi Uchida. He is currently in Milan, Italy attending the EICMA 2019.
Though the central government is pushing for speedy implementation of its policies for transformation to electric powered vehicles from the conventional ones, the two-wheelers may be the ones first off the block. The two major Indian two-wheeler giants, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp have already shown some interest in this direction.
While Bajaj has already showcased its new model Chetak Electric, and hopes to launch it commercially next year, Hero has made investments in a startup Ather Energy which builds electric scooters. How fast these companies manage to have their vehicles plying on the roads of the cities and towns of India will directly depend on the speed with which the battery charging stations come up. Each state government has to formulate a separate policy for electric mobility and work with the local district level administrations to develop the charging infrastructure. Allotting the space and releasing permissions to setup the infrastructure is crucial for this to happen.
Suzuki’s Uchida sounds a note of caution here. According to him, the limiting factor could be the lithium ion battery for electric vehicles. Lithium is not available in abundance and China is one of the countries with a huge reserve. If the demand for electric vehicles grows and the cost of lithium increases, then the business could become a little dicey for the manufacturers in building up scale.
Hopefully, the Indian government’s ambitious plans to set up large battery-making clusters in the country has taken this factor into account.