After working on EVs and CNG cars, Maruti Suzuki plans to work on bringing flex-fuel vehicles next
One of the leading car manufacturing companies in the country, Maruti Suzuki has always focused on the future of the Indian automobile industry. Established decades ago, the company has regularly designed and manufactured cars as per the latest market trends. First petrol, then diesel, followed by CNG and hybrid tech; Maruti Suzuki has come a long way. Not to forget, they have ventured into the EV sector as well.
Now, in 2021, the company has made decisions to invest in flex-fuel driven vehicles. Before writing more about the company’s future plans regarding the same, here is a brief about flex-fuel vehicles for the unversed souls. A flex-fuel vehicle is powered by a traditional internal combustion engine. However, it is not powered solely by petrol or diesel. The engine draws power from a mixture of fuel such as petrol and ethanol or diesel and methanol.
To many, flex-fuel is a new term, but to be honest, the concept of flex-fuel is ancient; 1994 to be precise. In 1994, American car manufacturing brand Ford launched a car by the name Taurus, which was equipped with flex-fuel engine and lakhs of units were sold in the market. Car companies are working on flex-fuel engines because it produce toxic fumes in lesser quantity, burns in any proportion and is more sustainable in nature.
Back to the company’s plan of bringing out flex-fuels in the future; as per a report published by Autocar India, The Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Kenichi Ayukawa, said, “We are preparing EVs and also pursuing ethanol, the government has announced flex-fuel and so we are developing those kinds of vehicles for the future. We just started studying this, and it takes time.”
Maruti Suzuki has decided to take this step after Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) requested all the car manufacturing companies to roll out as many flex-fuel driven vehicles as possible in the country in the shortest period of time.
At present, India is a country with no flex-fuel driven vehicles. However, flex-fuel driven vehicles are very popular in Brazil and the United States of America. Since Maruti Suzuki has made the move, we expect more companies to jump in because just like electric vehicles, flex-fuel is the future and nobody wishes to miss a piece of the pie.
