Tata, M&M and Maruti to co-develop hybrids

I couldn't believe this news. Tata, Mahindra and Maruti join hands to develop hybrid.

While companies like Honda and Toyota have already rocketed ahead with their hybrid cars (Honda Insight, Toyota Prius) and GM is working hard to catch up (with the Volt and Ampera), Indian car companies have also woken up to the need of having hybrid vehicles in their lineup.

Maruti, Tata Motors and M&M will now be working together to develop hybrid vehicles. They will work on co-developing lithium-ion battery, controller and electric motor technologies, which they will then use in their individual cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles. The three carmakers are committed to demonstrating their fleet of hybrid vehicles for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in India in 2010.

This hybrid vehicles project is being headed by I V Rao, a senior official with the R&D department at Maruti Suzuki and also the chairperson of the committee on National Hybrid Propulsion Programme.
Source: India Automotie

Good News, Mahindra is already working on Hybrid vehicles and its nice to know that Tata and Maruti has joined this race too, This means in the coming future we might see some Reva competitiors. :)

VT

Not a race vibhor. They have joined hands and developing to develop hybrid.

Crazy cat wrote:Not a race vibhor. They have joined hands and developing to develop hybrid.

Yes, I know it, I said "race" because of Maini,Currently Its the only brand in India which is selling an EV. :)

VT

but why has mahindra joined hands? they already have a working prototype of the scorpio hybrid. Autocar india mag has also tested the scorpio hybrid prototype.
in the scorpio hybrid, the best part was that the spare tyre was mounted on the rear door as the battery took its original place, under the boot.

raj_5004 wrote:but why has mahindra joined hands? they already have a working prototype of the scorpio hybrid. Autocar india mag has also tested the scorpio hybrid prototype.
in the scorpio hybrid, the best part was that the spare tyre was mounted on the rear door as the battery took its original place, under the boot.

May be they might be joined for some other benefits, something they haven't achieved at first try. Or may be they are aharing resources for money with Tata and Maruti.

Good move by all three carmakers.
Its nice to see that in India, carmakers are joining hands and inventing new technology, Just like in the case of Multijet Diesel Engine. :)


RoadRocket

finally we can look forward for a pack of indian made hybrids

this is a good news for future of car industry, with all this big three joining hands would be mainly worked for cost effetiveness and affordable technology.CHEERS!!

I guess these three companies would bring out a platform that provides low-cost hybrid cars, as Indians know hot to efficiently manufacture cars, especially the three on discussion.

Crazy cat wrote:

raj_5004 wrote:but why has mahindra joined hands? they already have a working prototype of the scorpio hybrid. Autocar india mag has also tested the scorpio hybrid prototype.
in the scorpio hybrid, the best part was that the spare tyre was mounted on the rear door as the battery took its original place, under the boot.

May be they might be joined for some other benefits, something they haven't achieved at first try. Or may be they are aharing resources for money with Tata and Maruti.

I think its becuase Scorpio Hybrid is not a true 'Hybrid'. It doesn't have an electric motor or battery power plant at its heart. Scorpio Hybrid uses the Stop-n-Start technology which is the very basic thing to achieve the Hybrid classification! Which means that as of now we do not have a pure Indian Hybrid vehicle

but soon we might be able to see a indian hybrid vehicle with these three majoy companies working together which is mainly for cost effectiveness, would you buy scorpio hybrid for 20Lacs no buddy nobody would, so let the technology get affordable first then to launch it on products.IMO.

shynishm wrote:

Crazy cat wrote:

raj_5004 wrote:but why has mahindra joined hands? they already have a working prototype of the scorpio hybrid. Autocar india mag has also tested the scorpio hybrid prototype.
in the scorpio hybrid, the best part was that the spare tyre was mounted on the rear door as the battery took its original place, under the boot.

May be they might be joined for some other benefits, something they haven't achieved at first try. Or may be they are aharing resources for money with Tata and Maruti.

I think its becuase Scorpio Hybrid is not a true 'Hybrid'. It doesn't have an electric motor or battery power plant at its heart. Scorpio Hybrid uses the Stop-n-Start technology which is the very basic thing to achieve the Hybrid classification! Which means that as of now we do not have a pure Indian Hybrid vehicle

I think M&M do have their own proper Scorpio hybrid yet to be launched.

Could be CC. Then it is good for us, because then probably they will make the so called 'Micro Hybrid' as a std. feature !

Yeah.
A proper Hybrid car is yet to be launched in India but do you people feel that our market is mature enough for a "Proper Hybrid" car? Eh, I don't think so.


VT

absolutely, we are not matured market to accept this technology as this point and price availibility, may be later on few years down the line things might change and should be.Hope so!

Yeh, I too agree. More over, hybrid cars are not that common stuff even in Europe & US. But of course people are concerned about the nature. And I think we, Indian, should be concerned too. However, as you guys said, our market is not ,matured enough to accommodate pure hybrid cars.