The Indian Government is pushing the automotive industry in India to make a move towards hybrid and electric vehicles in the future. Encouraging the development of green vehicles for domestic buyers, the government has rolled out the FAME (Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles) program.
The market leader, has been quick to latch on to this, accelerating its own development of cars with significantly reduced emissions in a bid to lessen the impact on the environment. The Maruti Suzuki Swift has been a hugely successful model and considered to be the top selling car in the segment.
The Maruti Suzuki Swift Ranger Extender Hybrid or REEV as it is called, aims to be the first plug-in hybrid hatch to be mass-produced in the country. The car manufacturer has long been known for products that excelled in terms of fuel efficiency and in recent years, the company has indeed stepped up efforts to drive down vehicular emissions.
A well-thought out model upgradation program is in place and technologies such as Auto Gear Shift (AGS) and others will not just offer improved convenience, but also achieve better tail-pipe emissions. The company remains committed towards tech investments that would achieve the dual purpose of increased fuel efficiency figures across its model range, reducing environmental impact in the bargain. The Indian Government has given its go ahead to the Maruti Suzuki Swift Ranger Extender Hybrid, green-lighting it as a pilot program that should reap rich benefits in the future.
The REEV sports a dual propulsion system incorporating a 650cc petrol motor and a 5 kilowatt electric motor to derive a combined output of 70 bhp. The resulting fuel efficiency figures are said to be 48 km/l according to company sources. Moreover, the lithium-ion battery pack in this futuristic Maruti Suzuki Swift takes a scant 90 minutes to charge. Drivers can select between three modes, depending on their needs. While the Hybrid mode uses the petrol motor to charge the electric one, both power sources are combined in the parallel mode. The third, electric mode is self-explanatory.
Through the government’s FAME program, Maruti is hoping that the higher costs of the Swift REEV shall be subsidized in a bid to boost adoption levels when launched. The likes of the Mahindra e2o, Toyota’s Camry & Prius, and the space-age i8 from BMW are the other’s apart from the Swift range extender, that are currently operating in the hybrid-electric space as well.
A lot is riding on the this particular initiative, as affordability remains the key to adoption and the Maruti Suzuki Swift Range Extender Hybrid (REEV) might just be the one to take this concept mainstream.
