New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) plans to go full throttle to develop various kinds
of alternate technologies, including CNG powered cars and hybrid vehicles, and not just
electric vehicles, a top company official said .The carmaker, which already has a market
share of 50 per cent in the domestic passenger vehicle segment, is keen to partner
government or oil companies in order China
alkaline dry battery for sale to push for CNG powered vehicles in the country.”We are
going to try and push this acceleration in use of CNG, hybrid and other alternate
technologies.
We are going to push all technologies, and not limit ourselves to one
technology,” MSI Chairman RC Bhargava said.He said the company wants to help reduce oil
import and air pollution and that its view is similar to that of the government. “We want
to have clean cars in the country, we want to reduce oil import and we want to reduce
pollution. Our objective is same as that of the government. For doing that we do not want
to put all our hopes on battery cost reduction. We want to look at other alternate
technologies as well,” Bhargava said.Without waiting for the cost of electric vehicles to
come down, MSI wants to go out for alternatives like CNG in the country. “The government
has already put the use of CNG for transportation at higher priority than its use for
power generation…We would like to use CNG for cars as far as possible. CNG is best
suited for small cars,” Bhargava said.He said if small cars were to be electrified it
would require substantial reduction in battery cost which means technology of some sort
has to come for the rescue. He added that Indian market is different from any other
market in the world, with 75 per cent of its cars costing less than Rs 5 lakh.”There is
no market in the world where there is such dominance of small cars. The implication for
electric cars is that, at todays battery costs, price of the vehicle goes up by Rs 6-7
lakh. Now, on Rs 5 lakh cars YoY, add another Rs 6-7 lakh; do you think anybody would
buy? Affordability becomes a huge problem,” Bhargava said.
He further added, “While
certainly we need to push electric cars, but we should not forget CNG, hybrids, ethanol
and methanol. Our view is to keep all options open, put all these options in front of
customer and then let him/her decide what is best suited for his/her requirements,”
Bhargava said.All such vehicles, run on alternative fuels and technologies, help in
reducing oil imports and air pollution. So it doesnt matter if it is achieved by electric
vehicle or CNG car, he added. Bhargava said the company would even try to work out a
joint programme with oil companies for CNG push in the country.”Oil companies and we can
co-ordinate our actions. They expand the sale outlets we expand the production of CNG
cars, so both go hand-in-hand in a coordinated manner,” he added.