Maruti Suzuki India Ltd MD and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi on Thursday expressed hope that the right balance between regulations and affordability will be continued in the future, saying it will ensure safer and cleaner mobility remain within the reach of Indian customers.
In his address at the annual convention of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Takeuchi also highlighted that compressed biogas has a very strong potential for India as the country has abundant cattle dung, biomass and agricultural waste 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 noted.
Over the last many years, Takeuchi said the small-car segment declined significantly as rising regulatory costs made car ownership difficult for many first-time buyers.
Noting that the impact of recent GST reforms has shown the power of affordability, he said, “Within the first four months of this financial year, the small cars, which fall under the 18 per cent GST bracket, recorded a robust growth of about 30 per cent, compared to nearly 20 per cent growth in the 40 per cent GST bracket.” In fact, he added,”Within the small cars, entry-level cars recorded a remarkable growth of almost 100 per cent, making mobility accessible and affordable for several first-time buyers.” Thanking the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials for the GST reform, he said “In future as well, I hope we can continue to maintain the right balance between regulations and affordability.” This will be important to ensure that safer and cleaner mobility remains within the reach of millions of Indian families, he added.
On sustainable mobility, he reiterated the company’s multi-technology pathway, including electric vehicles, hybrids, CNG and biofuels like CBG (compressed biogas) and ethanol.
CBG has a very strong potential for India as the country has abundant cattle dung, biomass and agricultural waste that can be converted into clean automotive fuel, he noted.
Besides being carbon negative, he said, “It curbs 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 said.
“Further, seven more cow dung based and four agri-based biogas plants are in pipeline,” he added.
During the recent India-Japan annual summit, prime ministers of India and Japan agreed to scale up the production of biogas by setting up 1,000 biogas plants in India, Takeuchi noted.
On electric vehicles, he said Suzuki made India the global manufacturing hub for e-VITARA, which has already clocked 46,000 units of exports to 50 countries, including UK, Europe and Japan.
“This makes us the largest BEV exporter from India with more than 90 per cent share. This is a significant example of India’s potential to become a global manufacturing base for advanced and sustainable mobility technologies,” Takeuchi said.
Stating that India has made a strong progress towards cleaner mobility, he said, “If we look at April to July period of last year, clean technologies like EVs, Hybrids and CNG contributed about 27 per cent of industry sales. This year, it has increased to 32 per cent.”