Maruti plans to manufacture first hybrid vehicle/news09012012

Maruti Suzuki is firming up plans to manufacture the country’s first hybrid vehicle. The carmaker has already started road-testing the Swift ‘range extender’, which runs on an electric motor, and alternatively on petrol, according to company officials.

The model was developed by parent Suzuki Motor and unveiled at the Tokyo motor show in November last year. Mahindra & Mahindra’s all-electric Reva is the first and only electric car in India in production.

The Centre will provide funds up to Rs8,000 crore under the national council on electric mobility announced in this year’s budget. The package aims at building support infrastructure for charging stations and includes cash subsidies for production of different types of electric vehicles and hybrids that run on both electricity and hydrocarbons. The package may also include a duty cut on imported lithium ion batteries required to power such vehicles.

The package is expected to be implemented from next month.

“We are waiting for the announcement of the hybrid vehicle package by the government and if it suits us, we will definitely want to give a value offering to customers”, I V Rao, managing executive officer (engineering), Maruti Suzuki India, said.

“Suzuki is working on range extenders and we (Maruti-Suzuki) have one vehicle ( Swift) that we are testing on Delhi roads,” he said.

Mr Rao, however, declined to specify a timeframe for the launch of the vehicle, because of the uncertainty about the creation of infrastructure for such vehicles.

The Swift range extender has fresh technology that uses a battery pack that enables charging of the lithium ion battery through a generator. “A range extender is the futuristic version of an electric vehicle, which enables self-charging of the battery from time to time. Due to continuous charge, there is no chance of a customer getting stranded (due to unlimited range),” Mr Rao said.

The lithium-ion battery is fitted at the rear trunk of the Swift range extender. The car looks like the original Swift, but is powered by a smaller 660 cc engine and returns about 30 kmpl when running on petrol.

M&M’s Reva is a two-door model that hasn’t been much of a success due to lack of infrastructure as well as drawbacks such as less space and low power. About 3,000 units of the Reva have been sold in India since its launch in 2001. It has also sold 1,500 vehicles in 24 countries overseas. M&M is now gearing up to launch a facelift model of Reva’s by October-November 2012.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has been selling the Prius hybrid sedan in India since January 2010 as completely built-up unit imported from Japan at Rs27.38 lakh to Rs29.41 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi). The firm has already sold around 150 units of the Prius since its launch. Honda Siel Cars India started selling the Civic hybrid sedan in 2008 but later withdrew it due to low demand because of exorbitant price of Rs21.5 lakh against the Civic petrol’s price of Rs12 lakh.

Mr Rao said the incentives on electric vehicles at present provided by the government were not sufficient for a manufacturer to go on full-scale production.

The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) had announced a subsidy of up to Rs100,000 on the ex-factory price of electric and hybrid cars produced in India but the incentive will expire by March 2012. Electric vehicles make up a meagre portion of the 2.52 million car market in India.
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