The most expensive part of an electric car is its battery. That single fact shapes almost every conversation about EV prices in India. So what if you did not have to buy it?
That is the idea behind Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS), and it has arrived on one of the country’s most closely watched launches. Maruti Suzuki’s first electric car, the e Vitara, is available at an introductory ₹10.99 lakh (ex-showroom) under a BaaS model — with the battery charged separately at ₹3.99 per kilometre for the base variant. Deliveries began in February 2026. (The launch price was announced as introductory, valid until March 31, 2026, so buyers should confirm the current offer.)
At first glance it looks like a dramatic price cut. The real question is what you give up to get it.
How the pricing works
Under BaaS, the price of the battery is taken out of the purchase price and turned into a running charge. According to an analysis of the e Vitara pricing, the difference is substantial:
The Delta (49 kWh) costs ₹15.99 lakh with the battery included and ₹10.99 lakh under BaaS — a saving of ₹5.0 lakh, with a battery charge of ₹3.99 per km. The Zeta (61 kWh) costs ₹17.49 lakh outright and ₹11.99 lakh under BaaS, saving ₹5.5 lakh, with the battery charged at ₹4.39 per km. The Alpha (61 kWh) costs ₹19.79 lakh outright and ₹14.29 lakh under BaaS, again saving ₹5.5 lakh.
Electricity for charging is separate: the per-kilometre charge covers the battery, not the energy used to run it. According to the same analysis, the battery cost is financed per kilometre over a tenure and at an interest rate that depend on the financier, in effect a second loan alongside the one for the car.
BaaS does not make the battery free. It turns a large one-time payment into a running cost that grows with every kilometre you drive.
The break-even question
The obvious question is how far you have to drive before the per-kilometre charges add up to the money you saved. Here is a simple illustration. (This ignores interest, financing structure and any variation between financiers, so treat it as a rough guide, not a quote.)
For the Delta, a ₹5.0 lakh saving divided by ₹3.99 a kilometre is about 125,000 km. For the Zeta and Alpha, ₹5.5 lakh divided by ₹4.39 a kilometre is also about 125,000 km. In other words, on these numbers the battery charges would equal the up-front saving after roughly 1.25 lakh kilometres of driving.
How long is that? A driver covering 1,000 km a month would take more than ten years. One covering 2,000 km a month — a heavy user, such as a taxi or frequent long-distance driver — would take about five. Interestingly, the battery is covered by a warranty of eight years or 1.6 lakh km, so the break-even distance falls inside the warranty period.
The cheapest car to buy is not always the cheapest car to own. BaaS makes that gap easier to see — and easier to miss.
Per-kilometre versus per-month: two ways to think about the cost
A per-kilometre charge behaves differently from a fixed monthly instalment. It is variable: drive little and you pay little; drive a lot and the bill rises. That is a feature for some buyers and a risk for others. For scale, consider a purely illustrative comparison: a petrol car that manages 15 km to a litre, at Delhi’s petrol price of ₹102.12 a litre, spends about ₹6.80 a kilometre on fuel. The e Vitara’s battery charge is ₹3.99–₹4.39 a kilometre — before the cost of electricity for charging. The comparison shows that a per-kilometre battery charge is a substantial running cost in its own right, not a token fee.
That does not make BaaS a poor choice. It means the sums should be done on total ownership cost — purchase price, battery charge, electricity, insurance, maintenance and expected resale value — rather than on the headline saving alone.
Who benefits from BaaS
On this arithmetic, BaaS looks most attractive to buyers who drive modest distances and want a lower entry price: a family that uses a car mainly for the city and weekends, for instance. A lower up-front cost also means a smaller car loan, and lower monthly instalments. For someone who expects to change cars within a few years, paying per kilometre may be cheaper than paying for a battery they will not use to the end of its life.
It is less attractive to high-mileage drivers, who will pay the per-kilometre charge more quickly, and to buyers who plan to keep the car for a decade or more. They may find that owning the battery outright works out cheaper over the long run.
What about resale and battery health?
Two questions dominate any discussion of EV ownership: what happens to the battery’s health over time, and what happens to the car’s resale value. BaaS addresses part of both. The e Vitara’s battery carries an eight-year or 1.6 lakh km warranty, so the risk of a major battery failure sits partly with the manufacturer. And because the battery is separately financed, the terms of any exit matter.
According to the pricing analysis, owners can sell the car after paying off any outstanding balance, and there are provisions for exiting the scheme before the tenure is complete. What buyers should check is how the arrangement is transferred: how a second owner takes over the battery payments, and what happens to the outstanding amount. These details will shape how well the car sells in the used market.
MG pioneered the concept in India with the Windsor EV. In the comparison cited, the Windsor 52.9 kWh’s BaaS reduction is about ₹5.13 lakh, slightly less than the e Vitara’s ₹5.5 lakh on the larger battery.
Two loans, one car
Because the battery cost is financed separately, a BaaS buyer effectively has two financial commitments: the car loan for the vehicle and a per-kilometre arrangement for the battery. Each has its own terms, and each is affected by interest rates. With borrowing costs a live topic — the RBI’s next policy decision is due on October 7 — the structure of the financing matters as much as the sticker price.
It also shifts a certain kind of risk. If battery technology improves quickly, or costs fall, an owner who has bought the battery may feel they overpaid; one who rents may benefit from lower costs. If costs do not fall, the reverse may be true. Nobody knows which way it will go, which is why flexibility in the terms is worth valuing.
What to ask before you sign
Anyone considering BaaS should ask a few specific questions. What is the per-kilometre rate, and is it fixed for the whole tenure? Is there a minimum monthly commitment or minimum distance? Who is the financier, and what is the interest rate? What happens if you drive far more or far less than expected? How is the battery valued if you exit early or sell the car? And what happens if the scheme changes after you have signed?
The e Vitara’s introductory pricing has an expiry, and terms can change, so check the current offer at the time of purchase rather than relying on launch-day figures.
The bigger picture
BaaS matters not just for one car. It is a way of tackling the biggest barrier to EV adoption — the upfront price — by breaking it into pieces. If it works, it could lower the entry cost of electric cars and spread the technology to more buyers. If it does not, buyers will find that the long-term cost of renting the battery is higher than owning it.
The honest answer to whether it is a good deal is: it depends on how far you drive and how long you keep the car. Which is exactly why the arithmetic is worth doing before the test drive.
