Maruti Suzuki E Vitara @ 10.99 Lakh? Top 5 Things To Know (BaaS Price & Other Fine Print Explained) | V3Cars

Let’s start with the most confusing thing first — the extremely attractive BaaS price of Rs. 10.99 lakh.

1. To BaaS Or Not To BaaS

The Evitara base model price with BaaS is extremely attractive at Rs. 10.99 lakh. For a C-segment SUV, this is extremely good until you notice the mention of BaaS. The MG Windsor is also available with an even better starting price of Rs. 9.99 lakh, which is also the BaaS price of the car.

The BaaS price means that you’re going to have to pay an additional cost every month. This is usually conveyed as some small amount per kilometre of driving. In this case, Maruti Suzuki have arrived at the Rs. 3.99 per km of BaaS subscription fee with an assumption that the car will be used for 60km every day.

This means, you are expected to pay approximately Rs. 7,200 per month. And by the way, you are going to have to pay this regardless of whether you actually drive 1800km every month or not.

As an early bird buyer of the MG Windsor, I’m more than aware of the underlying terms and conditions of the BaaS and they are not very buyer friendly. Most likely, the same conditions are applicable to the Maruti Evitara but we haven’t been able to confirm much of it other than the fact that there's a minimum Rs. 7,200 payment towards the battery loan.

BaaS is basically a loan repackaged as a subscription to help the electric car buyer see that the overall cost of ownership is lower with an electric vehicle. In the case of the Windsor, the battery or BaaS loan is available from the same or a different bank or NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company). Regardless of whether it’s the same or different financial institution, there’s a requirement of opening a separate loan account. That means a bunch more documents to sign.

To make the EMI amount appear as small as possible, the loan tenure with the MG BaaS component is 8 years. That’s as predatory as it gets for a car buyer. This also means that you’re going to have to pay a lot of money in interest. We recommend 6 years as the absolute upper limit for car loan but stick to 3 or 4 years if you can. This significantly cuts down the interest component when repaying your loan.

For example: On a Rs. 5.0 lakh loan with a tenure of 4 years, you end up paying Rs. 97,241 in interest. Doubling the loan tenure to 8 years adds about Rs. 1.06 lakh to the total amount you are going to have to pay to own the car. So, you end up with a total interest component of Rs. 2.03 lakh on a loan amount of just Rs. 5.0 lakh.

Unless you’re able to write it off as a business expense and turn that extra amount into a non-taxable component of your income, it does not make any sense at all to pay a financial institution, anything more than you absolutely have to.

For the sake of simplicity, we’d suggest getting the full car with a single loan so that it’s easier to manage.

With a tentative interest rate of 9% (typical for a car loan), an 8-year tenure and a typical market price of Rs. 10,000 per kWh of battery we get an EMI amount of Rs. 7,200 for EVitara BaaS. That gives us a tentative ex-showroom price of Rs. 15.90 lakh for the EVitara base model. This is quite good and we’d suggest you choose a single loan instead of splitting it into 2.

The final verdict is not to BaaS.

2. Free Home Charger Worth Rs. 50,000?

Yeah! Sure! That’s what they would like you to believe. But a 7kW home charger from Statiq or Exicom (both very well established in the charging infrastructure game) costs around Rs. 35,000.

If you’re okay with not-so-established brands, then you can get a similar charger for Rs. 20,000 or less from Strompuls and that too with a 5-year warranty instead of 2-year, which you get with Statiq and Exicom. This is just too good a value.

If you’re interested in checking out the Strompuls chargers, here are the affiliate links to buy from Amazon India:

• Strompuls 7.2kW Portable EV Charger: https://amzn.to/4aoxt1y
• Strompuls 7.2kW Home EV Charger: https://amzn.to/468yRD8

Disclaimer: We are not associated with Stormpuls or getting paid to recommend their products. The only way for us to earn here is when someone buys their product through our affiliate links. And even then, it’s a small percentage of the product price. Besides, E Vitara buyers are getting a free home charger, so the likelihood of someone buying from these links is pretty low. We have seen their products in person and came away impressed with the quality but we haven’t tried or tested them yet.

Since Maruti Suzuki are bundling the 7kW home charger with the car, you shouldn’t bother with wondering how much it costs in the open market. Just know that it isn’t Rs. 50,000 worth of value you’re getting here. It’s more like Rs. 20,000 cost saving.

You will also get a portable, 3.3kW charger with the car for charging on the go.

3. Free Public Charging Too?

MG were the first company to choose a stunt like this with the Windsor when they announced that all Windsor buyers taking delivery of the car before 2025 new year would get unlimited free public charging for the first year.

They soon learned the hard way that this deal has the potential to bankrupt the India operations of China’s SAIC. So, they quietly pulled this deal off the table even for their early adopters and backtracked on their promises.

Also Read: MG Limit Free Charging To 1000 Units Even For Early Bird Windsor Buyers

Naturally, Maruti Suzuki weren’t going to do a ‘free unlimited public charging’ with their car. 1000 units of free public charging in the first year is not even close to take care of the fuel needs for driving the car in a year. Even with a conservative estimate of 10,000km per year and a mileage of 6kmpu (after factoring in the 15% transmission losses), you’ll end up 4,000km short of 1-year usage. However, if you have home charging, then you can go on a road trip and use the 1,000 units of free public charging as a funding for your fuel.

This charging is applicable at Maruti’s charging network, which is mostly available with their dealer network. Since their free offer is fairly conservative, you can expect them to deliver on their promise and not backtrack on the commitment like MG did.

4. Industry-first 8-year Warranty

The Evitara will come with an impressive 8-year warranty but here too, there’s a fine print to consider. The standard warranty is 3-year or 1 lakh kilometers. You can buy an extended warranty to cover the car up to 5 years or 1.4 lakh kilometers. But that’s as far as the comprehensive warranty goes.

The EV drivetrain and powertrain related components can be covered with another extended warranty package for up to 8 years or 1.6 lakh kilometers. You’re not getting the full comprehensive vehicle warranty for 8 years as the claim in bold letters might suggest.

At 8-year/1.6 lakh kilometres, the Evitara’s battery warranty is also similar to that of other electric cars in India. MG Windsor, Mahindra’s born electric EVs and some Tata EVs do offer lifetime warranty on the battery packs of their electric cars.

5. Assured Buy Back For Business Owners

If you are a business owner and want to enjoy some depreciation benefits, then Maruti Suzuki are offering up to 60% assured buy back value. This is for a 3-year/45,000km plan and this will require an upfront payment of some amount, which is currently not known.

There’s also a 4-year/60,000km assured buy back plan which promises 50% of the ex-showroom cost as residual value. So, the business ends up paying roughly 12.5 - 13.5% of the ex-showroom price per year to own the vehicle. This buy-back option is not recommended for non-business owners who intend to keep the car around for much longer than 3-4 years.

Also Read: 2026 Toyota Ebella Variants Explained - Which One To Book?

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