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R. Bhargava

Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Search every verified R. Bhargava interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. R. Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, recently discussed India's mobility and manufacturing challenges in two interviews. In August 2026, he stated that India cannot rely on electric vehicles alone to meet its emissions goals, advocating for a combination of technologies such as hybrids and flex fuels. He noted that with India's electricity generation being about 75% coal-based, hybrids are currently cleaner than EVs in terms of net-zero emissions, though this could change with increased renewable energy use. Bhargava also said that India's small car market slumped after BS6 and safety regulations pushed prices beyond the reach of many potential buyers, and he credited a government GST change for small cars as a partial response. In a July 2026 interview, Bhargava discussed India's manufacturing ambitions, emphasizing that OEMs are primarily assemblers and that competitiveness depends on the supplier ecosystem. He said that Maruti buys about 75% of its components by value from suppliers. Regarding EV localization, he identified battery technology as the major challenge, noting that it accounts for roughly 40% of an electric car's cost and is largely controlled by Chinese companies that do not readily share the technology. He expressed skepticism about India becoming a leader in electric cars under current battery technology, while highlighting the potential for growth in India's auto component manufacturing and exports.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“In today's condition where electricity in India is about 75% coal, actually a hybrid is a little bit cleaner than electric car in terms of net zero. But as we improve our use of renewable energy solar or wind and the use of car coal goes down in the generation of electricity this will change.”

“The possibility of beating China on electric cars, as long as the technology remains what it is today for batteries, is very, very difficult. They're way ahead, they're ahead of the Japanese, they're are ahead of the Americans, they are ahead of the Germans. And we are far behind all of them in terms of an R&D. So, for somebody to say that India will become the leader of electric cars or something is really not based”

“See, what is harder this time is that the technology for a major component like a battery which is almost 40% of the cost of an electric car is not available. It's largely held by the Chinese. And they don't part with the technology just like that. So, we have a big problem in that area.”

“Maruti has always felt that in the Indian environment relying on any one technology to get to net zero is not appropriate. We need to encourage other technologies, particularly now in the context of what's been happening we need to develop our own sources of energy like biofuels, whether it is CBG or whether it is ethanol. And government support is required. Government is supporting other energy forms, it's supportin”

“The growth which I am talking about is now largely in our case constrained by our production capacity. We are running plants at 100%. And this year we have just added two new lines. One at Kharkhoda, one at Hansalpur, each of 250,000 units. These will gradually pick up production. And we expect that in the whole year between these two lines we will be able to add another 250,000 cars over what we did in the last peri”

“There was no national policy. There was no national goal that we have to make cars available to the common people or that the car industry in India should grow or that it should become one of the major industrial activities here that it should export cars. No question of all of that. The only thing we had in our mind was that we were required to produce a car before the end of 1983. It was to be a Maruti car because ”

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