Maruti Suzuki is set to introduce electric vehicles (EVs) in the coming months. Chairman R.C. Bhargava announced in his address to shareholders in the company’s 2023-24 annual report. The automaker is also anticipating a new policy framework that supports various clean technologies, including CNG, biogas, and ethanol.
“Some states, like UP (Uttar Pradesh), have already taken steps in this direction. We now await a policy framework that would lead to the promotion of all technologies that result in petrol and diesel cars being replaced by cars using other technologies,” Bhargava stated.
Bhargava expressed optimism that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will continue to prioritize infrastructure development, maintain fiscal prudence, control inflation, trust the private sector, and implement reforms to enhance manufacturing competitiveness.
He said, “We will be introducing electric cars in the next few months. The ability to rapidly expand the acceptance of such cars would depend on the pace of infrastructure development and reduction of the cost of electric cars. This has to largely come from localisation of production and better technology. It is also clear that pure petrol and diesel cars are the worst in terms of carbon and greenhouse gas emission and consumption of fuel. Therefore, while electric cars use increases, customers should be encouraged to buy cars using strong hybrid technology, or CNG or ethanol and biogas. Pure petrol and diesel car use should be minimised. Hybrid cars improve fuel efficiency by about 35% to 45% and help reduce the carbon and greenhouse gas emission by 25% to 35%. CNG cars are not as clean as hybrids but are better than petrol or diesel cars and also do not use oil.”
“India has a very large potential for developing biogas from agricultural, animal and human waste. Biogas is completely renewable, has no import content and is overall, carbon negative. Production of biogas would also lead to important benefits to the environment. For example, the burning of paddy stubble could be substantially reduced, and cleanliness levels increased. Your Company has started work on a trial basis to produce biogas. We look forward to government policies that would result in rapid development of this fuel. We are also working on modifying engines of cars and presently can use petrol blended with 20% ethanol. Technology exists to enable cars to use higher amounts of ethanol.” Bhargava further added.
