Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the ‘e VITARA’, Suzuki Motor Corporation’s maiden battery electric vehicle (BEV), from the Japanese carmaker’s plant in Hansalpur, Ahmedabad, on Tuesday.

Suzuki has chosen India as its global manufacturing hub for electric vehicles. These BEVs will be manufactured at Maruti Suzuki's Gujarat plant and exported to over a hundred countries, including advanced markets such as Europe and Japan.

PM Modi will also inaugurate a lithium-ion battery cell and electrode factory, set up under a joint venture of Toshiba, Denso, and Suzuki, for strong hybrid electric vehicles (SHEVs).

The plant will boost domestic manufacturing and ensure that more than 80% of the battery value will now be manufactured within India, a statement put out by the Prime Minister's Office said.

This comes a day after PM Modi, in his address at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi, pointed out that India’s automobile exports have grown from around ₹50,000 crore annually in 2014 to ₹1.2 lakh crore last year.

Maruti Suzuki plans to manufacture 70,000 units of e-VITARA in FY26, with the majority of the production earmarked for exports. Although the Japanese carmaker has been late to the EV race, it is looking to leverage exports to become India’s top electric car manufacturer within a year.

Maruti Suzuki plans to launch six battery electric vehicles by FY31. The carmaker expects 15-20% of its sales to come from EVs by then.

According to Hisashi Takeuchi, the managing director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, India’s cheaper electricity cost is a big tailwind for EVs. “India’s electricity price per kilowatt is much lower at ₹7-8. Indian electricity prices are one-third of those in Japan. For customers, the running cost of EVs is much cheaper than normal ICE cars,” Takeuchi told Fortune India earlier this year.

While the e-VITARA is expected to be launched for the Indian market later this year, the company has said that it plans to establish an EV charging ecosystem to address the pain points of customers.

“We are going to eliminate customer concerns about EVs. For example, if the range anxiety is an issue for customers, the next new products we are going to introduce have long enough range which will eliminate customer concerns. We have a vast network of our sales touch points as well as service touch points in India. We are going to utilise those sales and service touch points for them to charge their EVs,” Takeuchi told Fortune India said earlier this year.

The Maruti Suzuki MD & CEO said battery-as-a-service or battery rental is one of the options to eliminate the customers’ pain points. “By the time we introduce pricing, we will explain our solution for this also. The concern around residual value can be eliminated with BaaS,” he said. “We are thinking about how to eliminate consumer pain points and anxiety. Lowering the high upfront costs of EVs is one of the solutions.”

Maruti Suzuki is looking to set up an EV charging network in the top 100 cities.