Maruti calls for GST boost to hybrids
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki, the largest carmaker in India, has suggested that hybrids should be encouraged like electric vehicles to cut down emissions and improve energy efficiency.
The company, which plans to launch EVs in first quarter of next year, said hybrids should also be supported by govt as they end up making petrol engines cleaner, leading to reduced CO2 emissions.
Japanese carmakers, such as Toyota, Suzuki and Honda, have been slow to transition to EVs and are lobbying hard for tax concessions, years after Maruti and Mahindra's "mild hybrids" resulted in govt withdrawing concessional duty under GST as the product was seen to be misusing the tax benefit. Indian auto majors such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata have argued that hybrids are only a technology which makes ICE vehicles more fuel efficient and are not zero-emission vehicles like EVs.
