Toyota has announced its partnership with Suzuki to introduce a compact hatchback electric car in India in the coming few years, said Shigeki Terashi, executive VP & board member at Toyota.
According to reports, the executive VP told that Toyota would be collaborating with Suzuki as they have a significant share in the market and plan to introduce a compact EV. He added that the electric vehicle would have a mileage of 100 km per full charge.
Toyota, however, stated that it plans to launch a subcompact electric vehicle this week to mark its presence in the global mass-market of the electric vehicle industry. The subcompact EV will be available for sale in the second last half of 2020 and would mainly be used for last-mile connectivity.
Toyota-Suzuki collab 2017
In 2017, Toyota and Suzuki partnered to develop affordable hybrid and electric vehicles for the Indian market. As a part of the agreement, both the firms came to an understanding to supply its hybrid technology to Suzuki. However, the partnership did not deliver any results.
In September, Toyota reported pausing the manufacturing of electric and hybrid cars for the Indian market. It also canceled out any plans to withdraw vehicles powered by internal combustion engines from the Indian marketplace. India has already recorded a sale of 7.5 lakh EVs in FY’19 compared to 58,000 sales in FY’18.
