The Japanese automaker aims to have the plant up and running in 2025 or 2026.

The company is expected to invest a total of around ¥150 billion on the new plant, and to increase production of electric vehicles in India.

Suzuki hopes to expand sales of EVs in the country as the government promotes electric cars as part of its decarbonisation effort.

The battery plant will be set up near an existing Suzuki auto factory in the western state of Gujarat.

The company is set to reveal its plans on March 19, when Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida will be visiting India.

During his trip, Kishida is expected to announce that Japanese companies will invest ¥5 trillion in the South Asian nation over the next five years.

From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Suzuki intends to spend a total of ¥2.2 trillion on research and development and capital investment.

Of the total, about ¥1 trillion will go for R&D, most of which will be earmarked for development of EVs.

Suzuki hopes to roll out affordable EV models in both Japan and India as early as 2025, which it hopes will allow it to capitalise on an expected wave of automobile electrification.

Suzuki already has a joint-venture battery factory that it operates with Japanese electronics companies Toshiba and Desno in Gujarat.

The batteries manufactured at that plant are installed in hybrid cars.

With the addition of a new EV battery plant, Suzuki hopes to gain an edge in India’s EV market.

Suzuki currently has three auto plants in the states of Haryana and Gujarat which make a total of about 2.25 million cars a year.