New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) Maruti Suzuki on Thursday unveiled India’s first flex-fuel passenger car, the WagonR flex-fuel, marking a major step in the country’s shift towards alternative and cleaner fuels amid global crude oil volatility. The new model is capable of running on ethanol-petrol blends ranging from E20 to E100, making it the first mass-market passenger vehicle in India engineered to operate on 100 per cent ethanol. The company said the launch aligns with India’s broader push to reduce dependence on conventional petrol and expand the use of biofuels in the transport sector.

The unveiling event was attended by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who highlighted the government’s ongoing efforts to promote cleaner mobility solutions. He also said that the government is planning to introduce diesel blended with 15 per cent isobutanol as part of its alternative fuel strategy. Gadkari also urged automakers such as Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Hero MotoCorp to work on converting older vehicles into flex-fuel compatible models and align them with stricter emission standards, including Euro 6 norms.

He said such measures would help curb air pollution and support the vehicle scrappage programme aimed at removing older, more polluting vehicles from the roads. Speaking at the launch, Gadkari described the automobile sector as a key growth driver for the Indian economy and noted that India now has the world’s third-largest automobile industry, contributing significantly to GDP.

The company’s Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi also said that the company is investing in compressed biogas (CBG) projects and exploring other cleaner technologies such as hydrogen fuel. Maruti Suzuki officials also shared their broader clean mobility strategy. Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales at the company, said that nearly half of all green vehicles sold in the industry in the last financial year were contributed by Maruti Suzuki.

--IANS