Maruti Suzuki to stop rolling out pure petrol cars in ten years

CHENNAI: With stricter emission and fuel efficiency norms, India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is expected to have only hybrid (mild and powerful), flexible fuel, compressed natural gas (CNG), electric and biofuel vehicles, a senior official said.

As a result, the company's car portfolio may not include cars that run on pure petrol within a decade. The company has already stopped manufacturing diesel cars. Maruti Suzuki is also focusing on growing its sports utility vehicle portfolio and market share in that segment.

"Pure petrol-powered cars may not be there in the company's product line up, say in 10 years time as the emission and fuel efficiency norms are getting tighter," Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Marketing & Sales told IANS.

He said the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy or Efficiency (CAFA per cent) norms may come into place in 2032.

Unlike the norms for tailpipe emissions, the CAFA% norms are for a carmaker's entire portfolio. More the fuel efficiency of a car, the less the tailpipe emissions. As there is a limit on achieving higher fuel efficiency with the current technology, companies are looking at alternatives.

While electric vehicles are one option, it is not viable for the entire automotive segment in India in the short term owing to issues like availability of charging infrastructure, vehicle price and its payback period and others.

The other option is rolling out vehicles powered by mixed fuel -- ethanol plus petrol, hybrid, flexible fuel, CNG and the like.

Be that as it may, Maruti Suzuki is all set to unveil its first mid-size petrol-electric hybrid SUV on July 20. The vehicle will be available in two variants, mild and strong. The car will be manufactured at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd's plant in Bidadi, Karnataka.

With inputs from IANS