Maruti Suzuki Sets Up Innovation Lab For Automotive Startups

India’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has announced the launch of its Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) as part of a program to promote innovation in India for automobile and mobility space.

MAIL is an initiative by Maruti Suzuki to identify innovative and cutting edge solutions through startups, which are futuristic and customer oriented. The program will provide a platform to the budding talent in India to showcase their entrepreneurial capabilities at a national level,” the company said in a statement.

“The Indian Automobile industry is constantly evolving. The need of the hour is to have a relentless approach towards promoting a culture of innovation. This initiative will help Maruti Suzuki leverage the innovation capability of startups to provide unique solutions in the mobility and automobile space,” said Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director & CEO of Maruti Suzuki India.

The startups that get shortlisted would be offered an opportunity by Maruti Suzuki to turn their ideas into reality and for this initiative, Maruti Suzuki has partnered with GHV Accelerator, an Indo-Japanese early-stage seed fund with proprietary accelerator program and industry co-creation program.

Through MAIL, Maruti Suzuki aims to come up with next generation ideas in the areas of Connected cars, Shared mobility, Autonomous cars,  Electric vehicle and its Infrastructure etc with select few startups would get an opportunity to do a Proof of Concept (Pilot) with Maruti Suzuki.

The Indian automotive manufacturing sector is one of the fastest-growing automotive manufacturers in the world with an annual production of nearly 4.5 Mn units in 2016 making the country the fifth-largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

The automotive artificial intelligence (AI)  the market is expected to be valued at $782.9 Mn in 2017 and is expected to reach $10.5 Bn by 2025, at a CAGR of 38.46% between 2017 and 2025, according to a new market research report.