Maruti Suzuki e Vitara BaaS Explained: Price, Payment Plan

As Maruti’s first electric car, the Maruti Suzuki e Vitara holds a special place in the Indian market. Since the electric SUV has had long time coming, the Indo-Japanese carmaker has spared no effort in making it a car that masses easily pick over other electric cars. One key quality of the Maruti e Vitara is that it comes with a BaaS scheme (Battery as a Service), which makes it more accessible to buyers. In this article, we explain the BaaS plan of the Maruti e Vitara to help you make a financially sound decision while buying a Maruti e Vitara with BaaS.

What is BaaS?

BaaS, which is short for Battery as a Service, is a business model wherein you can buy an electric car and use its battery as a paid service on a rental basis. Meanwhile, the service provider owns the battery and ensures its timely maintenance and replacement if required. So, instead of owning the most expensive part of your electric car, its battery, you use it as a service, ergo the name – Battery as a Service.

In the BaaS model, there are two ways to use the battery as a Service. One is swapping a discharged battery with a fully charged one at the swapping station. However, this method is generally used for commercial electric vehicles. Second is paying a monthly fee to the service provider to use the battery. The monthly fee depends on the number of kilometres you plan to drive your electric vehicle in a month.

With BaaS, the upfront cost of an electric vehicle is significantly lower than the price of the whole electric vehicle, including the battery.

Maruti Suzuki e Vitara BaaS Prices

The Maruti Suzuki e Vitara BaaS scheme has different subscription charges, depending on the battery pack. Maruti charges Rs. 3.99/km for the smaller 49 kWh battery pack, and Rs. 4.39/km for the larger 61 kWh battery pack.

Now, while the cost of Rs. 3.99/km looks attractive, you will need to drive at least 60 km every single day of a month (30 days) to make this cost profitable for you. 60 km daily for 30 days means 60 X 30 = 1,800 km, and Maruti will charge a monthly fee for at least 1,800 km, which is Rs. 3.99 X 1,800 = Rs. 7,182.

If you opt for a higher variant, the per-kilometre charge goes up to Rs. 4.39, and another important point to consider will be the fact that your EMI will remain the same whether or not you drive 60 km daily.

Moreover, the per-kilometre charge does not include RTO tax, Insurance, TCS, and other statutory taxes.

Value Additions

The Maruti e Vitara comes with a NEXA Edge package to make its ownership easier. This package offers the following benefits.

• The battery pack has an 8-year/ 1,60,000 km warranty, while the vehicle has a standard 3-year warranty, which is extendable up to 8 years.
• A 7.4 kW AC Wall Box Charger along with free installation.
• Assured buyback value: 60 percent of the car’s value after 3-years /45 000 km, or 50 percent of the car’s value after 4-years /60 000 km.  

Final Thoughts

In its typical fashion, the BaaS scheme makes the ownership of the Maruti e Vitara flexible and more accessible to the average Indian buyer. However, whether its Maruti e Vitara or any other car that comes with BaaS, the financial benefit of the BaaS scheme depends on the distance the electric car is driven every month. So, it is important to calculate the BaaS cost of the electric car you intend to buy, according to your monthly car usage. All the same, in case of Maruti e Vitara, certain value additions such as buyback offers also need to be considered to get an estimate of how economically the Maruti e Vitara is with the BaaS scheme.    

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