Saar: WagonR has been in production since 1999 in India and is currently the third most manufactured product by Maruti Suzuki.
It isn’t a secret anymore that Maruti Suzuki and Toyota are co-developing EVs (electric vehicles) for India, the first of which will launch in 2020. It is part of their agreement that the first-ever EV will be built at one of Maruti Suzuki’s manufacturing plants, and Toyota will give the technical know-how. Up until now, there was no word on what kind of vehicle will lead the EV era for India’s largest carmaker. All we knew was it would be in the small car segment, which would help the masses to at least consider it over conventional vehicles.
Now though, a report from The Hindu BusinessLine, says that according to its research, the first-ever EV from the house of Maruti Suzuki will be a WagonR. The report suggests that Maruti Suzuki knows the WagonR platform exceptionally well and considering it has clocked over 20 lakh sales in less than two decades across the country, it is a well-accepted model too.
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A person in the know reportedly told the publication:
WagonR EV will be the first electric car to be launched by the company, in 2020. It will most likely be manufactured at Suzuki’s plant in Gujarat as the battery manufacturing facility of the partnership among Suzuki, Toshiba and Denso is also coming up there.
Another person aware of the development allegedly said:
It makes sense for the company to make an electric version of WagonR as it is a five-seater and can hold the weight of the battery better than the Alto. The company has to fit the battery, controller and motor, but all the other parts can remain the same.
Let’s not forget that the WagonR is due for a generation change in India. Test mules of the upcoming WagonR have been caught on several occasions doing rounds on our roads. If we were to believe in what the publication has reported, the forthcoming WagonR would be built on a platform flexible enough to accommodate conventional internal combustion engines and transmissions as well as an electric powertrain.
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Another aspect that the manufacturers consider while developing an electric car for the masses is that it delivers the best possible range on a single charge. Apart from the powertrain, aerodynamics play a crucial role in settling the fate of those numbers. The Maruti Suzuki WagonR might be a sensible five-seater hatchback and could very well accommodate the load of the electrified powertrain. But there’s no running away from the fact that it doesn’t have the most aerodynamic shape that would help improve aerodynamics and, in turn, the range.
It remains to be seen whether our reservations with WagonR becoming the first EV from Maruti Suzuki have any weight. Or will the company use the same, tried-and-tested, recipe and save the cost of building a whole new EV from the ground-up? What do you guys think?
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