Maruti Suzuki to Launch Hybrid Swift or Dzire in India by year end
Country’s leading car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki is reportedly going to launch its first hybrid car in India by the end of 2015. According to sources Maruti’s hybrid will be a plug-in version of its popular hatchback Swift or the compact sedan Dzire. The upcoming hybrid will likely to be based on the Swift Range Extender a hybrid car that Maruti had earlier developed for a special government project.
Since quite some time now Maruti has been toying with the idea to launch a hybrid passenger car in the Indian market. And it has finally found the right time to do it now. Apparently the Indian government has begun the FAME scheme, under which it subsidises the purchase cost for hybrid and e-vehicles. Under this new scheme customers who desire to buy plug-in hybrids will be eligible for a discount of around INR 1.2 lakh.
Commenting on the same a government official said, “We have asked auto majors to start introducing more hybrid and e-vehicles variants than the regular petrol and diesel cars so that consumers get more choices. The scheme cannot be a success alone with one or two such cars available in the market.”
Coming to the car itself, the Swift Range Extender, the plug-in hybrid version of the car is powered by a 658cc petrol engine attached to an electric motor, which is powered by a 5 kw lithium ion battery pack. The motor and engine together develops 73 PS power and Maruiti Suzuki claims a fuel economy of 48.2kpl. The battery can be fully charged by a 200 volt electric socket in 90 minutes, and has a range of 25.5 kilometers. The car comes in three modes - Series Hybrid, Parallel Hybrid and All Electric. In Series, the engine is used to charge the electric motor, which, in turn, powers the vehicle. In parallel, both the engine and the electric motor turn the wheels and in all electric, only the electric power is used.
Currently the only hybrids available in India are the Toyota Camry and Prius that costs over INR 30 lakh and BMW i8 which goes up to a whooping INR 2.3 crore. Thus in order increase the number of hybrid vehicles in India and at the same time make it more accessible to masses the government has approached the popular passenger car makers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata and Mahindra to launch hybrids and e-vehicles in India. Mahindra already offers the Reva e2o, an all electric car, whereas Tata has revealed its plans to electric versions of its light commercial vehicle super Ace and Magic.
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