Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Suzuki announced that Suzuki Motor Corp. intends to invest more than 700 billion rupees ($8 billion) in India, highlighting the nation’s increasing significance for the Japanese carmaker as it enters the electric vehicle market.

In a speech on 25 August, Suzuki stated, without providing any details, that this investment will take place over a period of five to six years. The business will be producing its first e-VITARA SUVs from the Hansalpur facility in the western state of Gujarat, where he was addressing at a ceremony.

With a planned capacity of one million units, this plant “will shortly become one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturing hubs,” Suzuki stated, adding that the eVITARAs produced here will be exported to over 100 nations, including Europe and Japan. According to a statement from its local subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the first shipment of these EVs is on its way to Europe. Maruti Suzuki will benefit from the parent company’s investment as it works to quadruple its production capacity in India to 4 million cars by the end of this decade.

With these planned investments, Suzuki Motor hopes to expand into EVs and ring-fence its market domination in India, while demand in Europe and its home market of Japan declines. In terms of income, the South Asian country is the company’s biggest market, and it is currently developing into a crucial export location for its EV business.

Suzuki’s New Midterm Outlook Focuses Growth Hopes on Japan and India

In an effort to safeguard supply chains for its hybrid vehicles in the face of growing trade restrictions, Suzuki Motor has also begun producing lithium-ion batteries locally in collaboration with Toshiba Corp. and Denso Corp.

Suzuki stated at the occasion that the carmaker will use a variety of technologies, such as compressed biogas engines, electric-powered motors, and powerful hybrids, to reduce pollution.

India may take longer to electrify because of supply chain risks and lower income levels. R.C. Bhargava, the chairman of Maruti Suzuki, told reporters on Tuesday that widespread EV adoption requires widespread affordability.

Although affluent Indians are already purchasing more expensive devices, he continued, broader adoption won’t occur until yearly salaries approach $5,000.