Nitin Gadkari Takes A Look At The Honda City Hybrid
India’s transport minister is in full support of the push towards clean and green mobility
After checking out the hydrogen driven Toyota Mirai back in March, transport minister Nitin Gadkari recently took a look at the new greener Honda City Hybrid.
Honda launched India's first mass market self charging hybrid City e:HEV in early May, with prices starting from Rs 19.5 lakh (ex-showroom). Equipped with a small battery pack, the hybrid sedan makes use of twin electric motors and a 1.5-litre petrol engine (98PS/127Nm), which combine together to produce 126PS and 253Nm. It has an average fuel efficiency of 26.5kmpl.
Related: Here’s How The Honda e:HEV Hybrid System Works
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken quite a few steps in India’s adaptation towards cleaner mobility. With a target of reducing India’s total projected carbon emissions by a billion tonnes by 2030, the transport minister has been urging carmakers to manufacture flex-fuel vehicles in India.
It has also taken steps to improve the safety coefficient of vehicles in India by introducing in-house crash tests for cars sold in India. The transport ministry is even considering alternatives to electric vehicles by using other clean technologies like hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles. The government has also announced its plans of making it mandatory for all cars to come with six airbags as standard, starting from October 1, 2022.
Also Read: Honda City e:HEV: First Drive Review
While the drive toward cleaner mobility gains traction, the EV charging infrastructure is still taking shape in the country. Electric vehicles, currently, are priced at a premium over their ICE counterparts which makes people consider a conventional fuel-burner over an all-electric vehicle. Hence, carmakers are shifting towards a more sustainable powertrain option which offers the best of both worlds like the self charging hybrid in the City e:HEV.
Subsequently, Toyota and Maruti’s upcoming Creta-rivals will be strong hybrid offerings with a 1.5-litre petrol engine. Like usual hybrids, it will allow the engine to switch between hybrid, engine-only and pure EV modes as per the requirement.
What More Steps Should The Government Take To Make Adoption Of Self-charging Hybrid Cars Easier?
Firstly, given the similarity in the tax structure of self-charging hybrid cars to their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts, it becomes vital that the government reduces it. As the strong hybrid option is still expensive and it would require a lot of running to justify its premium. So reduction in taxes would significantly cut down the price premium of these greener models. The City hybrid, for reference, is priced at a premium of around Rs 4.5 lakh over the top-spec petrol-CVT variant of the standard City. Additionally, the transport ministry should also consider lowering the import duties on EVs and components, which currently employ 100 percent tax.
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