Hail The Hybrid

Green vehicles have failed to make much headway in India so far, but hybrid ones seem better poised to do so than the purely electric.

- Chanchal Pal Chauhan

Despite interventions by the judiciary, and stringent yardsticks for vehicle tail-end emissions laid down by the government, air pollution in India’s urban areas remains alarmingly high. Delhi has the dubious distinction of being the most polluted city in the world. Vehicle makers have added turbochargers and other devices to their engines, in a bid to decrease emissions and increase fuel efficiency, but these too have had limited success.

A much discussed alternative to fossil fuel vehicles, electric cars (which have zero emission), has also proved a damp squib so far. The best known brand, Mahindra’s Reva, has been selling only about 1,000 units a year, though it has been around for more than two decades. Battery operated two-wheelers have fared just as badly, selling just 20,000 units in 2015/16 against petrol ones selling over 15 million.

In these circumstances, can hybrid vehicles make a difference? Hybrids combine the conventional internal combustion engine with an electric propulsion system, so as to make optimal use of both the fossil fuel employed as well as the rechargeable battery, providing higher mileage and also keeping emissions low. They can also run entirely on electric power for short stretches of 15-20 km. The global leader in hybrids is Toyota, with its Prius brand accounting for over half the hybrids sold worldwide so far.

Toyota introduced Prius in India in 2012, but at the steep price of around `38-39 lakh, its market is limited. Its executive sedan Camry, however, launched in August 2013 and priced at around `31 lakh, available in both fossil fuel and hybrid varieties, has had significant success, with the latter spectacularly outselling the former. Of the 1,027 Camrys sold in 2015, 881 were hybrids (Rapid Success).