Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Thursday said it expected the right balance between regulations and affordability to continue in the future, saying it will ensure safer and cleaner mobility remain within the reach of Indian customers.
In his address at the 66th annual convention of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Hisashi Takeuchi, MD and CEO, MSIL, highlighted that compressed biogas has a very strong potential for India as the country has abundant cattle dung, biomass and agricultural wastes that can be converted into clean automotive fuel.
“For millions of Indian families, buying a car is still a major aspiration. It gives them greater safety, convenience, and comfort. This is why affordability is important,” he said adding that over the last many years, the small-car segment declined significantly as rising regulatory costs made car ownership difficult for many first-time buyers.
On sustainable mobility, he reiterated the company’s multi-technology pathway, including electric vehicles, hybrids, CNG and biofuels like compressed biogas (CBG) and ethanol.
Besides being carbon negative, he said CBG can curb stubble burning, thereby improving air quality. “It is fully Atmanirbhar, and it generates income and employment opportunities in rural India. Suzuki is already working on biogas production in India and three cow dung-based biogas plants are already operational,” he mentioned adding that seven more cow dung based and four agri-based biogas plants are in pipeline.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Shenu Agarwal, the newly elected President, SIAM, said, “I think the question is only about bringing more clarity and bringing more alignment. Now, we know the destination is clear. The destination is no more anything which we can debate around, and the destination is that the automotive industry will have to have a multi fuel pathway. Depending on the segment, different types of technologies will come, even within a segment, more than one technology will be there.”
In commercial vehicles (CVs), also he said the industry knows Diesel is going to stay for some time, but CNG/ LNG and electrification are also going to be much more prominent and at some point in time when the conditions are conducive, hydrogen-powered CVs will also come.
“So it will be a multiple pathway…this may not be true for every segment, but every segment will have more than one section. So what do we need to do is basically as an industry…we have to focus on accelerating or maturing these technologies, very quickly,” he added.