Suzuki working on affordable hybrid tech for India

Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava said that Suzuki Motor Corporation, the company’s Japanese parent, is developing affordable hybrid technology for its compact cars and might consider bringing the plug-in hybrid technology in the future. This comes amid reports of the Central government considering reducing the GST on hybrid cars to 5%. Maruti Suzuki currently sells the Grand Vitara and Invicto strong hybrids as part of an alliance with Toyota.

Maruti-Toyota collaboration

Toyota’s hybrid technology is expensive to develop and this translates into higher final cost than its pure ICE counterparts. Notably, hybrid vehicles in India attract a 43% GST. In its 3.0 long-term vision, Maruti Suzuki intends for a 25% penetration of hybrids, ranging between 750,000 to 1 million units by fiscal year 2030-2031. 

High GST

He did not disclose specific launch timelines for the new technology and stated that its introduction in the market relies on the GST rate and how fast it is developed by the engineers at the headquarters. 

“A lot of work is going on in Suzuki Japan to evolve better technology which will enable smaller cars to take advantage of the principles of hybridisation to improve fuel economies at a much more affordable cost. If this is aligned with lower GST, I think you can look forward to small cars with much better mileage than we have today,” he said while speaking to the media after the FY24 results.

Plug-in hybrids

Maruti Suzuki MD Hishahi Takeuchi stated that the plug-in hybrid system is a very interesting proposition that they should consider seriously, but there are no immediate plans of bringing the same in India.

For now, hybridisation is the station to be at and a couple of new additions to Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio are anticipated. However, the carmaker may continue with the strong parallel hybrid from Toyota after it launches the affordable hybrid series that is in development and the plug-in hybrids would follow.

Maruti Suzuki in February revealed that its indigenous hybrid technology will go into the Fronx, with some reports claiming it would return a mileage of over 35 kilometres a litre. Reports suggest that the Baleno, Swift and a small MPV, which is in the works, can benefit from this technology in the future.