Suzuki in partnership with Toshiba and Denso has signed a Joint Venture to form a company to manufacture automotive lithium-ion batteries in India. 

Explaining the move, Suzuki said the joint venture aims to achieve stable supply of lithium-ion battery packs in India and contribute to government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Suzuki will consist of 50 percent share in the joint venture, Toshiba will have 40 percent and Japanese automotive components manufacturer Denso will have 10 percent participation.

Manufacturing batteries locally could lower the cost of electric vehicles as batteries account for a big amount of their cost. At present, nearly all of the batteries are imported, largely from China.

The move could come as an enormous boost towards developing the state of electric mobility and drive growth in the country’s fledgling EV industry, which sold a total of 22,000 EVs in 2015-16. The Indian government has a determined target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles from 2020.