Toyota and Suzuki Motors on sharing CNG technologies

Tyota Motor and Suzuki Motor are likely to discuss sharing the CNG technology
for India as the Japanese automakers seek to enhance the production of
automobiles running on greener fuels.

“With BS-VI coming in and small diesel vehicles going out
of favour, Toyota may look at introducing CNG vehicles in India,” said a top
industry official aware of the plans.

Suzuki already sells CNG vehicles in the country and it
could be the basis of discussion between the partners in the future.

Toyota has CNG options available in vehicles in Japan but
is interested in sourcing CNG-driven variants from Maruti Suzuki to reduce the
cost of manufacturing.

“CNG engines, which are retro-fitted on to cars in the
after market, cost substantially less than factory fitted CNG
vehicles do. The idea is to source CNG variants of shared vehicles from Maruti
to gain the economies of scale and lower the production cost,” said the officials.

Suzuki’s Indian subsidiary Maruti Suzuki has already
announced plans to convert all small cars in its portfolio to run on CNG.

Maruti chairman R C Bhargava had earlier told sources: “There is an
acceptance from government that CNG is a cleaner fuel, and it is being accepted
for transportation. It’s setting up 10,000 CNG distribution
outlets. Users are accepting (CNG vehicles).”

“Toyota and Suzuki, in addition to bringing together
Toyota’s strength in electrification tech and Suzuki’s strength in tech for
compact vehicles, aim to
grow in the widespread popularisation of electrified vehicles to achieve
sustainable mobile society in a manner that ensures fair and free competition,”
said a spokesperson.