Maruti Suzuki e VitaraPrime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate and flag off the e Vitara — Maruti Suzuki’s first global strategic battery electric vehicle (BEV) — from the company’s Hansalpur plant in Gujarat on August 26, 2025.
The compact SUV, first showcased at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025, will also be exported to advanced markets such as Europe and Japan.
While addressing the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in Delhi on Saturday, PM Modi said that the sharp rise in automobile exports and announced that India is set to begin shipping electric vehicles (EVs) to 100 countries.
“Till 2014, India used to export automobiles worth about ₹50,000 crore. Today, India exports automobiles worth ₹1.2 lakh crore annually. We have started exporting everything from metro coaches and rail coaches to locomotives. India is now going to export electric vehicles to 100 countries of the world. A major event related to this is scheduled for August 26,” said PM Modi.
He added that India must set new benchmarks in exports across sectors, even as the country faces recurring threats of tariffs from US President Donald Trump.
A push to local manufacturing
Alongside, the Prime Minister will launch the next phase of India’s battery manufacturing ecosystem with the start of local production of hybrid battery electrodes at the TDS Lithium-Ion Battery plant in Gujarat. The joint venture between Toshiba, Denso, and Suzuki is expected to push domestic value addition in EV batteries beyond 80 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, currently has a production capacity of 26 lakh units annually across four plants. Its exports crossed 3.32 lakh units in FY25, while domestic sales stood at 19.01 lakh units. With the start of EV production at Hansalpur, the plant will also leverage India’s first automobile Gati Shakti multimodal cargo terminal, which can dispatch up to 3 lakh vehicles annually by rail.
A senior railway ministry official told Indian Express special rakes with wagons designed for EVs — BCACBM, ACT1, and ACT2 — will be deployed once full-scale production begins. “We already have connectivity to Mundra port, which will enable faster, cheaper and safer exports of electric vehicles,” said the official.
