Maruti Suzuki launches India’s first flex-fuel car

Govt plans to establish 50 to 100 ethanol dispensing stations across Delhi-NCR and Mumbai-Pune-Nagpur: Puri

Maruti Suzuki on Thursday launched India’s first flex-fuel passenger car, the Wagon R Flex, at an event in New Delhi. The event was attended by Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The car is positioned as a step toward reducing crude oil imports and lowering carbon emissions by running on any blend of petrol and ethanol, from E20 to E100.

The launch event, held at Taj Palace’s Durbar Hall in New Delhi, was organised under the theme “Fuelling the Vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.” Gadkari served as Chief Guest and Puri as Guest of Honour.

Maruti Suzuki Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said the launch was more than a product announcement. “India has two national objectives: reduce dependence on imported crude oil and reduce carbon emissions. Flex-fuel meets both. It is truly Atmanirbhar and clean,” he said. He acknowledged that a complete ecosystem for flex-fuel is still being developed, but said it was the market leader’s responsibility to take the first step. “In the absence of an ecosystem, it is the responsibility of the market leader to take the first step and encourage others. Today, Maruti Suzuki is taking the first big step,” he said.

Takeuchi credited Gadkari for driving the industry toward biofuels. “When nobody believed in biofuels, you guided the industry that the produce of Indian farmers can replace foreign oil,” he told the minister. He described flex-fuel technology as offering benefits well beyond the automobile sector, linking mobility with agriculture and clean energy to self-reliance.

Gadkari used the occasion to make a separate announcement on hydrogen. He said India will pilot hydrogen-powered buses and trucks on ten national roads, with Reliance Industries, Tata Group, NTPC, and Ashok Leyland joining the initiative.

“We have undertaken a pilot project on 10 roads of India, where hydrogen buses and trucks will start,” he said. He described hydrogen as a fuel for the future and said India now has the potential to shift from being an energy-importing nation to an energy-exporting one.

On sustainable aviation fuel, he said India is currently producing 78,000 tonnes per year and could become a net SAF exporter within two years. He added that the government intends to eventually run fighter jets and helicopters on SAF.

Puri said India’s performance on fuel price stability during global disruptions had been remarkable. “In my calculation, India comes after Japan as the country that has the lowest increase in fuel prices among all 193 countries in the world,” he said.

He noted that 60 per cent of India’s LPG and 90 per cent of its crude oil had been coming from the West Asia region, and that despite the ongoing geopolitical tensions, there had been no fuel shortage anywhere in the country in the more than 93 days since the situation escalated.

Puri said flex-fuel expansion will accelerate now that E85 has been identified as the mono-fuel standard under Bureau of Indian Standards specifications.

He said the government plans to establish 50 to 100 ethanol dispensing stations across Delhi-NCR and the Mumbai-Pune-Nagpur corridor initially, expanding to 500 by December this year and approximately 5,000 across major cities by the end of next year.

Maruti Suzuki’s Executive Director for Corporate Affairs, Rahul Bharti, said that if 50 percent of new two-wheelers and four-wheelers produced over the next ten years are flex-fuel compliant, India could unlock 311.8 crore litres of additional ethanol demand, generate Rs 12,403 crore in additional income for farmers, and cut 66.4 lakh metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The company said its broader strategy includes electric vehicles, strong hybrids, compressed natural gas, compressed biogas, and hydrogen. Maruti has already announced nine compressed biogas plants, of which two are operational. The Wagon R Flex adds to what Takeuchi called the company’s “bouquet” of cleaner mobility solutions.