Toyota to get Suzuki’s first-ever EV as partnership expands

(Reuters) -Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor’s Indian unit will supply its first-ever electric vehicle to Toyota Motor, the two companies said in a statement on Wednesday, in a move that marks their first collaboration on green vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki, which is majority-owned by Suzuki Motor, will begin production of the EV from spring 2025 in its plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki climbed about 4% to trade near the session’s high after the announcement.

The platform for the EV was jointly developed by Suzuki, Toyota and Daihatsu Motor, according to the statement. The green vehicle has been developed by Suzuki.

“We would like to learn from each other’s strengths, compete, and further joint efforts based on a multi-pathway approach,” Toyota President Koji Sato said.

Suzuki and Toyota have previously collaborated on developing combustion fuel and hybrid vehicles, but not EVs.

The move also cements India as an EV hub for Suzuki, which plans to invest more than a billion dollars in India, its biggest market outside of Japan.

Neither Suzuki nor Toyota’s Indian units sell EVs in the country.

The EV, which will be a sport utility vehicle, will have a 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack with a range of 500 kilometres (311 miles). A concept version of the EV was showcased in India’s auto show last year.

The new model will be one of 10 battery-powered vehicles the world’s biggest automaker has said it will launch by 2026, a Toyota spokesperson said. There are no plans to produce the EV anywhere else besides the Gujarat plant.

Toyota said earlier on Wednesday it sold just over 108,000 battery-powered electric vehicles worldwide during the first nine months of the year, accounting for 1.5% of its global sales, including that of its luxury Lexus brand, over that period.

Maruti Suzuki plans to add a fourth production line at the Gujarat facility with a capacity of 250,000 units per year, just for EVs.

It had previously said it plans to supply the EV globally, including to its Japanese parent as well as European markets.

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)