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Informist, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026

 

--Maruti Suzuki official: May mull exporting flex fuel Wagon R to Brazil

--Maruti Suzuki official: Seeing low sales of flex fuel Wagon R in India

--Maruti Suzuki official:Plan to sell flex fuel car to Brazil in early stage

--Maruti Suzuki official: Brazil flex-fuel mkt to be new challenge for co

 

By Anand JC

 

MUMBAI – Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. may mull exporting the flex-fuel variant of its hatchback Wagon R to Brazil as the model struggles to find feet in India amid poor unit economics, a senior company official told Informist. The plan is at a preliminary stage as the car was launched only in June and the company is only looking to utilise its technology capabilities for flex fuel cars overseas, should domestic sales fail to take off in the long run, the official said.

 

Indian policymakers often tout Brazil as the quintessential success story of blending ethanol with petrol for automotive purposes. "We might have to turn to Brazil at some point if sales do not pick up in India," the executive said.
 

Entering Brazil would be a very different challenge for Maruti Suzuki as it would be a completely new market and a mature one. Most passenger vehicles sold in Brazil are equipped with flex fuel technology and the country accounts for roughly 75-80% of the South American flex fuel engine market, according to HTF Market Intelligence.

 

"It will be a totally new entry for us, we will face the same challenges as a new player does in any established market," he said. "We hope sales pick up here because we have the benefit of being the first car company to introduce this technology in India," he said.

 

In India, Maruti Suzuki has set up an automotive vendor ecosystem to support the sales of this variant of Wagon R. "We cannot wait too long, vendors have begun asking us about the response to the model," the official said.

 

SALES LAG

Maruti Suzuki became the first carmaker in India to launch a flex-fuel-compatible car in June. The model was priced at INR 723,900 ex-showroom. Only 12 units of the car have been registered across India so far, according to data from VAHAN. This data monitors actual deliveries to buyers, and not wholesale despatches from manufacturing factories to the dealerships. Maruti Suzuki has not made despatches data for Wagon R flex fuel public.

 

The Wagon R is among the highest-selling models of Maruti Suzuki, especially in the passenger car range. In June and July combined, the company had despatched 40,290 units across powertrains, including petrol and compressed natural gas variants. Data for August is unavailable.

 

Maruti Suzuki had expected sales of Wagon R flex fuel to be limited immediately post launch. "We need more models. We need parity between ethanol and petrol price. So all those factors will take some time for flex-fuels to develop," Rahul Bharti, senior executive director of corporate affairs at Maruti Suzuki India had said in an analyst call in late April.

 

Alongside Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp Ltd. had also launched two VARIANTS OF flex fuel motorcycles. The company said it got over 5,000 bookings in the first month of launch. As many as 2,661 of these motorcycles have been officially registered so far, VAHAN data shows.

 

India currently has 48 retail outlets which supply E85 blend of petrol. The Centre wants to scale this up to 500 retail outlets by December and 5,000 by December 2027 in a bid to raise India's aggregate ethanol blending level to nearly 26% by 2030-31.

 

"Most of the FFV (flex-fuel vehicle) WagonRs sold so far have been to the sugar lobby bodies and some to sugar companies and maybe a few government agencies," the executive said.

 

Currently, E85 blend of petrol and ethanol retails at a discount of INR 20 per litre over the price of E20 blend. "The government did provide a discount, but it is not enough when you run the cost economics," the official said, adding that the company is hopeful of some response from the government on pricing.

 

Maruti Suzuki is India's biggest passenger vehicle exporter currently. Exports accounted just over 18% of its overall sales in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), up from around 14% in FY25. It currently sells cars to around 120 countries, with South Africa and Japan being its biggest markets. 

 

At 1412 IST, shares of the company traded 0.8% lower at INR 12,660 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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