The government should get into discussions with the world's leading car manufacturers, almost all of whom have now set up (or are setting up) shop in India, to encourage the local production of cars that run on dual fuels or even entirely on fuel cells. The benefits will be seen not just through reduced consumption of hydrocarbons but also through a reduction in automobile emissions. While Honda has just introduced its hybrid Civic in India, more such cars are being produced overseas (like Toyota's Prius).

India got its first hybrid car on Wednesday with Honda rolling out a petrol-electric version of its Civic sedan. The car will be more eco-friendly and fuel efficient (for its class) than any other in the market but will remain a niche product. The reason? The Civic hybrid has come with a prohibitive price tag of Rs 21.5 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), twice the price of the petrol Civic, thanks to accumulated duties, including customs, of 104%. This virtually makes the country's search for green and fuel-efficient options a non-starter.

Japanese car major Honda on Wednesday launched its first hybrid car in India, Civic Hybrid, priced at Rs 21.5 lakh. Masahiro Takedagawa, president and CEO of Honda Siel Cars India told reporters, the high price tag was partially due to the 104 per cent customs duty on the vehicle. The company is importing Civic Hybrid from Japan as a completely built unit. Takedagawa said they have approached the government through SIAM to clip the import duty.

Revving up the race for manufacturing hybrid vehicles on a mass scale that could reduce dependency on depleting oil resources and also address environmental concerns, Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that it plans to begin manufacturing lithium-ion batteries by next year for a plugin hybrid vehicle to be launched in 2010. This was announced at a Toyota environmental forum that was kicked off by an address, delivered on video, by R K Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Opens factory at Ambattur to produce 100 bikes daily CHENNAI: Tube Investments of India (TII), a part of the Rs. 9,582-crore Murugappa Group, has announced its foray into eBikes by kick-starting its factory at Ambattur here. M. M. Murugappan, Chairman, TII, on Thursday, inaugurated the eBikes factory. The factory would have a production capacity of 100 eBikes a day in the low and high-speed categories. These eBikes would be marketed under the aegis of the BSA brand. The market for eBikes is estimated at Rs. 450 crore. The industry is expected to double in a year's time.

Government should cut import duties on eco-friendly cars

FACED with rising crude oil prices, Indian automakers are getting back to the drawing board to design more compact vehicles with smaller engines that burn lesser fuel. While a vehicle with smaller engine may be less powerful than current models, it would be far more fuel efficient, say most top auto companies including Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors.

When CEO Takeo Fukui says he would spend $ 10 billion to rack up a Formula One victory for Honda, you get the sense that he really means it. Under Fukui's five-year leadership, Honda Motor's car sales have jumped by a third and profits by an even bigger margin to a record $5.8 billion last year. But it's the lack of an Fl win that sticks in the craw of the 63-year-old former engineer, who joined Honda precisely because it was the first Japanese automaker to enter the world's premier motor sport. Fukui just doesn't like to lose.

When CEO Takeo Fukui says he would spend $10 billion to rack up a Formula One victory for Honda, you get the sense that he really means it. Under Fukui's five-year leadership, Honda Motor's car sales have jumped by a third and profits by an even bigger margin to a record $5.8 billion last year. But it's the lack of an F1 win that sticks in the craw of the 63-year-old former engineer, who joined Honda precisely because it was the first Japanese automaker to enter the world's premier motor sport. Fukui just doesn't like to lose.

Honda will sell a new, improved and affordable gas-electric hybrid in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in early 2009, the company president said Wednesday. President Takeo Fukui told reporters that green cars, especially hybrids, will be a pillar of Honda Motor Co's strategy for the next three years, starting this fiscal year that began April 1.