In a collaboration with tech giants Toshiba and Denso, the company will be setting up India’s first lithium-ion battery production facility purely dedicated to automobiles. 

 

By the end of this decade the plant is expected to be up and running and will be constructed in a supplier park close to the carmaker’s production facility in Hansalpur, Gujarat.

 

Japanese automaker Suzuki, which has a controlling stake in India’s Maruti Suzuki, will have the highest stake of 50 per cent in the battery plant. Toshiba, which will supply cell modules, will have a 40 per cent stake. 

 

Toyota-owned company, Denso will bring in its technological prowess and hold the remaining stake in the venture. Collectively, the trio will invest over Rs 1,150 crore into the battery plant.

 

The list of attendants at the International Convention Centre in Gandhinagar included Toshihiro Suzuki, president of SMC, Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), R C Bhargava, chairman of MSIL, and Kenichi Ayukawa, MD of MSIL.

 

 Even the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, were part of the ceremonies for Maruti Suzuki’s production plant and battery facility in Gujarat.

 

In February this year the manufacturing facility in Gujarat went live, to lessen the load on plants in Gurugram and Manesar (both in Haryana). The Gujarat plant is strategically located and will help Maruti Suzuki transport its products to export markets through the various shipping docks present in the state.