Go Green with Pure EV's(BEV), hybrids(HEV) or Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV), which is best for Indian roads in 2022?

With Petrol/Diesel prices crossing the redline mark of INR 100/Liter, its not just the Go Green things in mind that making Indian consumer look forward to alternative fuel run car's but now the actual reason is to reduce their per km everyday running cost. 

Everyone is trying to explore pure EV's or Battery EV's(BEV) to find which can be the best for them. Currently in India market we do not have much choice but to buy a TATA Nexon EV (India's best selling EV) if the budget is < 20Lac, as it starts from 14lac onwards only. Which is still double the cost of its petrol version that starts around 7lac, and will mean that you have to drive it for 75,000Km plus in next 4 years (before you change it for a new car, assuming petrol version will have a running cost of Rs.10/km against EV running cost of Rs.1/km) to cover this cost difference. All other EV's are point blank more than 2X cost of their of the Petrol/Diesel counterparts(if they exist) and are beyond 20lac budget (more of big hatch's calling themselves Electric SUV's) and you may not even cover the cost difference with the mileage benefits even if we drive it for 100,000km in next 5years.

Looking at the current charging infrastructure, warm & humid climate conditions - where no one can drive w/o AC or stay in open to charge the car at public charging stations without AC almost 9 months in a year, these EV's can be used only for your daily city run and you need to keep another car for weekend long drives or outstation trips, so that you are not stuck with range anxiety and spoil your family time searching for public chargers. I feel that its not the right time to jump on pure EV's till we have the mainstream Electric cars with around 750km range, well developed charging infrastructure in the budget range of 10% - 20% above the top end petrol/diesel model of the same car available to buy in the India market (which I expect will be by 2030).

Another option that we have, is still very limited numbers in India is strong hybrids / HEV's, till now it was only Toyota Camry and Lexus range which was starting round 50Lac on road, but Honda changed it recently with the launch of their 5th Gen Honda City e:HEV in India just within 20Lac price bracket. This car with innovative drive technology uses 1.5L Atkinson cycle OHC i-VTEC petrol engine and dual electric motor e-CVT (a small generator motor to charge Lithium ion battery pack and bigger drive motor) with 8 years warranty on battery, outstanding mileage numbers of 26km/l and exhilarating torque of 253Nm, it promises to get our per km running cost to around Rs.5/- per km - which is good thou still higher than Rs.1/- per km cost of EV's   

Toyota & Suzuki are preparing to get more Strong HEV's in India with their upcoming compact SUV lineup, it would be great for India market if they get it with hyper-fuel-efficient small-displacement petrol Atkinson cycle engines a three-cylinder 1.0-liter or four-cylinder 1.3-liter along with dual motor hybrid drive setup, and target mileage number of around 50km/l plus reducing the running cost to Rs.2/- per km within 20Lac budget like Honda City e:HEV it will surely hit the Indian customers and generate a very good sales number for them (Toyota/Suzuki/Honda please hear the voice of Indian consumer and get your most fuel efficient HEV's to India market within everyone's budget).

Next is the PHEV segment of plug-in hybrid vehicles, these can really rule India market for the next decade or so, if the car manufactures get their right PHEV products to India market at the right price point. Most of us, living in metro's may be driving our car's around 50km everyday on an average and if we get PHEV's in India market with pure EV range of 50km-70km before the petrol engine kick's in it will be a win-win for both the city pollution level and we get the running cost almost same as the EV's - Rs.1/km for all city run. (With small engine & smaller battery its sure to cost lower than EV's and close to top end models of bigger engine version of the same car). Added advantage will be that we can use the same car on weekend drives or outstation trips without any range anxiety as we have the petrol/diesel engine as backup. We currently have only Volvo XC90 recharge, a PHEV in India market with pure EV range of 40-50km which is good for daily city use, weekend long drives or outstation run but it is around INR 1Cr in cost which is a blocker/show stopper for many who wish to buy it. Volvo should try out XC40 recharge (PHEV) in < INR 40lac segment with a small battery pack an a smaller petrol/diesel engine and it may get the required numbers to breakeven and also get XC30 / XC20 recharge tear down models in < 30Lac and <20Lac segment as these products will have the potential to become mass market products in India car market. 

Looking at the charging infrastructure in India market and needs of the car buyers, all global manufactures like Toyota, Suzuki, Honda, Volvo and others should try to get their leading PHEV's with smaller petrol/diesel engines coupled with electric motors (to give more power on demand) along with small battery that give a pure EV range of 50km plus and mileage of 100km/l plus, which can be simply charged on any home electric 220V 5Amp socket in few hours overnight (no need of fast chargers) in INR20Lac Budget range. Like Toyota RAV4 PHV plug-in hybrid car in Europe that cracked the magic 100 km/l efficiency mark (1.0 liter/100 km) in WLTP.

Cabriolet : the convertible car’s for India



One of the major attraction of 12th Delhi Auto Expo 2014 was this Cabriolet – the convertible from Audi - A3 Cabriolet. This Cabriolet will come powered by a 1.8-litre TSI petrol engine based on the Volkswagen group’s MQB platform.

 

Audi has stated that it is not looking at large volumes with this car; it’s just to add a bit of sex appeal and enhance the appeal of the A3 brand. Volumes for the A3 Cabriolet are too small to locally assemble it here in India, it will come here as a full export. So, expect a price tag of around Rs 35-40 lakh. 

 

In 11th Delhi Auto Expo 2012, we saw this concept convertible from Maruti, the A-Star Cabriolet which sparked the hope of Indian buyers to get these Cabriolet’s or the convertible’s in the hot selling super-mini low budget cars segment in India which can give good numbers. This car perfectly displays the positive intentions of the auto giant from India to tread into newer paths so that it can stay ahead of competition – just like Celerio with AMT (EZ-Drive) at this year’s show, but we don’t know when will these type of concepts will ever make into production for Indian buyers.

 

Exploring internet one can find many pictures of concepts or production versions of convertibles in super-mini segment from Suzuki, GM, Nissan, Hyundai and others and this can be a new segment which can be matured in India if some of these companies do launch the convertibles versions of their popular hatches like A-star, Micra, Spark, i10Grand. They have already started offering Automatics and Sunroofs…. Why not convertible’s also ?

Maruti Suzuki Celerio EZ-Drive: a step in the right direction !

 

I feel here is the right move by Suzuki, to give the taste of Auto-transmission technology to Indian customers at affordable cost. They claim to give the ease of driving an automatic - matching the fuel efficiency of a manual transmission with its revolutionary AMT technology. Suzuki’s Auto Gear Shift technology is based on electronic control unit which drives the precision hydraulic actuator to control the clutch engagement and the gear shifting at optimal timings mating to the engine sweat spots for optimal  fuel efficiency.

Best part of this car is, that it provides manual gear shift – like the paddle shift in high end cars, matches the fuel efficiency of a manual transmission and the AMT enabled manual gear box did not add much extra weight or cost to the car price like the regular automatics. 

As the Indian car market (6^th largest in the world) is evolving, this introduction of AMT by Suzuki in Celerio will help the buyers shift from pure manual to this semi-automatic transmission technology with low differential cost of about 30-40K INR against the current delta of other type of more matured automatics which add up anything form 70k-1L in the cost.

It will give sometime to the good DSG/CVT based auto-transmission systems to improve further on their fuel efficiency and then the delta of moving from AMT to fully automatic technologies like (DSG/CVT) will further reduced to another 30-40K INR - which Indian buyers might be interested to invest in when they plan their next car after AMT powered Celerio or other cars with similar technology which are expected to be launched soon in the Indian market.

Thus as a strategy, to help Indian car buyers graduate from old manual transmission cars to fully Automatic by Suzuki Celerio EZ-Drive is a step in the right direction.