Petrol and diesel prices have been surging for a while now and it is the utmost concern of vehicle manufacturers. One of the best solution to this price rise problem, is switching to more fuel efficient technologies such as Hybrid technology which makes use of more than one source of power like a petrol engine and electric motor or diesel engine with electric drivetrain.
India’s biggest commercial vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra is reportedly developing a fully hybrid vehicle for the very own Indian market. According to president, Pawan Goenka, the development of the vehicle has begun and within the next three years the car will be ready for a commercial launch. But is the Indian market ready for Hybrid Vehicles yet?
image – Mahindra Verito Electric Car At Auto Expo 2012 for illustration only
Honda was the first company to come up with a hybrid model, the Honda Civic Hybrid, that but it had to discontinue the same within a year because of the underwhelming response. The company sold a total of only 300 units of the same car.
In 2010, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd launched the Toyota Prius and sold a little more than 155 units of the same. Toyota is considering localization of the Prius to reduce its price but it will depend on government’s upcoming policy on hybrid and electric vehicles which is due to come in two months.
Tata is also developing a hybrid vehicle alike Mahindra but experts says that it would take some time for them to attain the level of finesse that Toyota and Honda possess. Mahindra offers a micro hybrid technology in cars like Mahindra Scorpio, Mahindra Bolero and Mahindra XUV500 and till date the company has sold enough such vehicles. The company is even planning to introduce the micro-hybrid technology in some of the Ssangyong models. Whether the company will recover the cost that is to go into the development, is not known but we hope it does. We will keep an eye on the developments of the Mahindra Hybrid vehicle for India, for latest updates sign up for our free email newsletter and like our official Facebook Page.
via – LiveMint
