Will never reduce our focus on buyers who cannot afford expensive cars: Maruti Suzuki Chairman

Bhargava stated that MSIL was the first company to start the production of CNG cars because they were more economical than petrol cars as well as environmentally cleaner.

“They suited users with limited incomes and also met environmental objectives. With the government giving high priority to building infrastructure for CNG distribution, the sale of CNG cars has been rising and we expect to sell about 600,000 such cars this year.

Bhargava also claimed that Maruti is the first company to extend its sales and service network to rural areas and small towns. "The intention was that people in these areas of the country should get facilities similar to what was available to those dwelling in large cities. Now about 46% of our sales come from rural areas.," he noted.

Going green and remaining powertrain-agnostic

Meanwhile, the MSIL chairman stated that it is awaiting a government policy framework to promote all green technologies, including strong hybrids, to replace petrol and diesel vehicles and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

"It is also clear that pure petrol and diesel cars are the worst in terms of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption. Therefore, while electric car use increases, customers should be encouraged to buy cars using strong hybrid technology, or CNG, or ethanol and biogas,” added Bhargava.

In his view, pure petrol and diesel car use should be minimised. “He also claimed that hybrid cars improve fuel efficiency by about 35-45 percent and help reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 35 percent. He also reckoned that while CNG cars are not as clean as hybrids, but are better than petrol or diesel cars and also do not use oil (fossil fuel).

Maruti Suzuki had earlier indicated that it is planning to bring in the strong-hybrid technology across multiple models, including upcoming models in the next six to seven years. In addition to ICE and CNG, the carmaker is working on different technologies like EVs, flex-fuel, bio-gas, and hybrids.

“It is also clear that pure petrol and diesel cars are the worst in terms of carbon and greenhouse gas emission and consumption of fuel. Therefore, while electric car use increases, customers should be encouraged to buy cars using strong hybrid technology, or CNG or ethanol and biogas, opined Bhargava.

He also reiterated that the company will be introducing electric cars in the next few months.  However, he maintained “The ability to rapidly expand the acceptance of such cars would depend on the pace of infrastructure development and reduction of the cost of electric cars. This has to largely come from the localisation of production and better technology.

He also opined that India has a very large potential for developing biogas from agricultural, animal and human waste.

“Biogas is completely renewable, has no import content and is overall, carbon negative. Production of biogas would also lead to important benefits to the environment. For example, the burning of paddy stubble could be substantially reduced, and cleanliness levels increased,” noted Bhargava.

MSIL has started work on a trial basis to produce biogas and is looking forward to government policies that would result in the rapid development of this fuel. “We are also working on modifying car engines to use petrol blended with 20 per cent ethanol. Technology exists to enable cars to use higher amounts of ethanol," explained Bhargava.