Maruti Suzuki plans electric cars, CNG variants

As part of a strategy to develop small cars that run on alternative fuel technology, Maruti Suzuki is working on rolling out electric cars and compressed
natural gas (CNG) variants for three or four of its models, Business Standard has reported.

These models are slated to be unveiled by 2011.

The company has pointed out that it is currently developing electric car technology for India and in the next five years or a bit more it will be manufacturing electric cars for the Indian market.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava,was quoted as saying, “We are working on multi-fuel variants and some models have been identified for CNG. A CNG kit currently costs over Rs 40,000 and that is expensive.”

“Also, these cars can only be launched in 2010 or 2011, when there is a pan-India CNG filling system from companies like Reliance,” he added.

Maruti Suzuki, which is India’s largest auto company in terms of sales, has already kicked off work on multi-fuel variants.

The company has already launched LPG variants of the Maruti 800 and Maruti Wagon R.

The company has said that though car makers, such as Honda and Toyota, have commercially viable hybrid technology cars, they sell in less volumes on the global markets.

Suzuki is known as a low-cost car manufacturer selling in large volumes and the company would be relying on this factor to achieve sales numbers for its proposed electric cars in India.