Maruti Suzuki Working On Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) Powered Engines And E85 Flex Fuel Engines

Maruti Suzuki is gearing up to introduce a slew of alternative fuel powered engines to its model range. We already told you that the carmaker will transition its entire model range to E20 material compliant fuel by March 2023 and now carandbike can confirm that Maruti Suzuki is working on Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) powered engines and E85 Flex-Fuel Engines. However, the company did not specify any particular timeline to launch the CBG or Flex-Fuel powered models as yet.

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki To Transition Its Entire Model Range To E20 Fuel Compatibility By March 2023

Speaking with carandbike, C V Raman, Senior Executive Director, Engineering & CTO - Maruti Suzuki India said, "We already have CNG vehicles, we are going to migrate all our vehicles to E20 material compatibility and going forward we will also work on CBG and evaluate how can we leverage that. Because we already have CNG vehicles, CBG can be easily adopted, and of course we'll look at flex-fuel vehicles in the future."

India's largest carmaker planning to introduce alternative fuel engine is also in line with the government's push to achieve 'net zero emissions by 2070 and begin reducing the nation's carbon footprint from 2030. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister For Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has been stressing launching flex-fuel and hydrogen-powered models and Toyota has already showcased the flex-fuel Corolla Altis in India. While EVs will of course take the lead in achieving a bigger market share in the green energy vehicle segment, flex fuel and hydrogen-powered vehicles too will contribute considerably in achieving this feat.

While flex fuel engines are compatible to 85 per cent ethanol blended (E85) fuel, CBG engines are compatible to 90 per cent methane content. Basically, Bio-Gas is purified to remove hydrogen sulphide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour and compressed as Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG), which has methane (CH4) content of more than 90 per cent. CBG has calorific value and other properties similar to CNG and hence can be utilized as green renewable automotive fuel.

As far as flex fuel technology is concerned, Maruti Suzuki is likely to benefit from its alliance with Toyota when it comes to technology adoption, however, it did not reveal any plan regarding flex-fuel powertrains as yet.