-First EV to be launched in India in FY2024
-Flex Fuel vehicle showcased at 2023 Auto Expo
Future portfolio for Maruti
Maruti Suzuki will be diversifying its future portfolio with not just electric vehicles but also ICE-powered vehicles that will run on CNG, biogas as well bio-Ethanol. It has showcased these in various forms at the 2023 Auto Expo including a new brand EV.
EV range and battery production
The highlight of the Maruti Suzuki EV effort at the 2023 Auto Expo was the eVX crossover concept. It is a Hyundai Creta rivalling vehicle that will be offered with a 60kWh battery pack and a company-claimed range of 550km. It is 4.3 meters with a wheelbase of 2.6-metres putting it in line with everything else around it. The eVX will be joined by six other electric vehicles by FY2030 and these are expected to be EV versions of the Baleno, Fronx, Swift and Spresso for the Indian market.
The automaker is already working on a battery assembly at its Gujarat facility and this is expected to provide EV batteries for the Indian market, export models as well as for cars from Toyota as a part of its alliance deal. it will over the next few years invest Rs 10,000 crore for the development of the vehicle, battery plant and production process.
Maruti Suzuki CNG range
This is perhaps where Maruti Suzuki has made maximum progress in the last few years in terms of market share. Every car in its current range, save for the Ciaz sedan, has a CNG option. What’s more Maruti Suzuki has managed to move over 10 lakh CNG-enabled cars since it began the green push. On the face of it, the CNG push has come on the back of exiting the diesel market in 2020 but now also on the fact that CNG has lost its “cheap-car only” tag. Its perceived lower running cost and availability in higher-spec variants have definitely pushed it forward among buyers. We expect CNG to play a much bigger role in terms of Maruti’s volume game.
Ethanol and Biogas
At the 2023 Auto Expo, Maruti Suzuki showcased a flex-fuel enabled Wagon R. It’s powered by their 1.2-litre K-Series engine producing 88.5bhp/113Nm and only offered a five-speed manual. It is tuned to run on any grade of an ethanol mix going all the way from E20 to an E85 mix. There are no design or feature list changes indicative that Maruti Suzuki is banking on easing its customers into the fuel by keeping every other bit of the car the same as before. Speaking to us on the occasion of World Environment Day, CV Raman, Chief Technology Officer, Maruti Suzuki said that the company would start series production of Ethanol compatible vehicles in November 2025 with a market launch shortly later.
Finally, Maruti Suzuki is also investing heavily in biogas production for CNG, especially in rural areas. It plans to achieve this using cow dung and in the larger scheme of things also reduce CO2 emissions. As a part of this Maruti Suzuki has already signed agreements with various dairy development boards in Gujarat for starting the process. The production of compressed Biogas would be one of the efforts by Maruti Suzuki on the road to achieving its 2070 goal of carbon neutrality. The push needs to come from not just the vehicles but also from the production process and this would go a long way in that effort. Raman added that this Biogas could easily be pumped through existing network CNG stations with very few changes.
