Maruti Suzuki is working on an ambitious plan to roll out electric cars and compressed natural gas (CNG) variants for 3 or 4 models in India which may take upto five years. The plan is part of Maruti’s broad strategy to develop small cars that run on alternative fuel technology and thus save on fuel cost and be more environmental friendly.
The company is working on multi-fuel variants and some models have been identified for CNG. A CNG kit currently costs over Rs. 40,000 and that is expensive. Also, these cars can only be launched in 2010 or 2011, when there is a pan-India CNG filling system from companies like Reliance. It is learnt that the R&D unit in Japan is currently facing two key challenges in developing electric cars for India mileage per charge and price.