Delhi EV policy: Removal of incentives on strong hybrids ‘surprising’, says Maruti Suzuki

Days after the Delhi government’s electric vehicle policy removed proposed benefits to strong hybrid vehicles, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has called the move “surprising” as the EV policy treats a relatively cleaner technology of strong hybrids on the same level as "polluting" diesel.

“In the draft policy, there was some benefit for strong hybrids. It was very surprising that it was removed from the final policy, particularly because now strong hybrids and diesel are on the same platform,” Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer of Corporate Affairs at Maruti Suzuki, said during a monthly media conference call.

While welcoming the Delhi EV policy for its incentives on battery electric vehicles, Bharti said a polluting fuel such as diesel would be treated the same as strong hybrids.

“We have invested in lithium-ion cells and electrodes for making strong hybrids and will continue our efforts on all clean and green technologies, whether it is biofuels like ethanol, CNG (compressed natural gas), CBG (compressed biogas), strong hybrids and electric vehicles,” Bharti said. “We are also researching on hydrogen, so we'll continue our efforts, but we hope that we take cognizance of this fact and differentiate between cleaner fuels and not so clean fuels,” he added.

The penetration of CNG vehicles in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio hit a record high of 42% in June.
Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki is also looking to promote flex-fuel vehicles in a major way after the launch of its maiden flex-fuel car, the WagonR Bioflex.

“We believe that this is a technology which will help India in a long way. We will not be waiting for flex-fuel stations to come up because our vehicles can run on even conventional fuel also,” said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales at Maruti Suzuki.

Agreed, Bharti. The fuel ecosystem doesn't exist today, but the market leader is encouraging all stakeholders to come together, he said.

Maruti Suzuki is not focused on generating sales of flex-fuel vehicles immediately. Instead, its priority is to take the first step and demonstrate commitment to the technology.

“What is more important is to take the first step and give confidence to the other stakeholders that they can also start investing and building those pillars of the ecosystem, when the ecosystem comes together, the dots will be joined, and then it will become very mainstream kind of option. Till such time, we are very patient, and we can wait, and possibly a market leader can always do that,” said Bharti.