New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS): Maruti Suzuki's parent Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to make India its global electric car manufacturing hub with the first batch of vehicles expected to be rolled out as early as 2025, according to a news report.

Suzuki will start producing electric vehicles at the Gujarat plant and export them to Japan as well.The company will also consider supplying India-made EVs to partner Toyota Motor for European markets that would be sold under the Toyota brand, the report published in Japan's Nikkei newspaper on Wednesday stated.

Nikkei said Suzuki will set up a new production line for electric cars at the Gujarat plant which also produces petrol cars. The battery-powered cars that Suzuki plans to export to Japan would be small SUVs priced around 3 to 4 million yen ($20,043), Nikkei said.

At present Maruti Suzuki is lagging behind rivals such as Tata Motors, which is currently the market leader in EVs and has confirmed that it will have 10 EVs in its line-up by 2026. In contrast, Maruti has no pure electric vehicle in its portfolio. Maruti arch competitor Hyundai has also committed to launching six EVs by 2028.

However, Maruti Suzuki has said earlier that it intends to launch six EVs by 2031, but there was concern among shareholders that other firms may outpace Maruti’s EV rollout.

The company has also earlier announced it will invest around 150 billion yen (about Rs 10,445 crore) by 2026, for local manufacturing of EVs and the batteries required for them, in the Gujarat factory.