Toyota Motor Corp has unveiled its flex-fuel hybrid sedan in India. This also mark the beginning of the company’s pilot project in a market where the government is pushing automakers to switch to clean fuels.
The sedan is developed by Toyota’s local unit and it will be powered by a flex fuel technology. The flex fuel tech allows the engine to run on fuel blended with a higher percentage of ethanol along with a hybrid powertrain, which reduces the gasoline consumption. A flex-fuel strong hybrid car can run on either 100% petrol or 20 to 100% blended ethanol along with a hybrid assistance. Government of India has announced that all carmakers will have to offer cars capable of running on a flex fuel by 2025.
Nitin Gadkari, the road transport minister wants automakers to develop flex fuel engines that will use ethanol as the dominant fuel. This will help in reducing the country’s dependence on petrol which it imports.
Speaking on the same, Toyota Kirloskar’s vice chairman Vikram Kirloskar said that this pilot project will increase India’s energy independence, in line with the government’s target for self sufficiency in energy by 2047. India is aiming to follow Brazil where sale of flex fuel vehicles is popular. India is also a major producer of sugar and Government of India is keen to boost its usage of ethanol. Toyota said that the pilot project will give an idea about how the car operates in India.
