Tata’s indica and Mahindra Scorpio will soon be powered by hydrogen. Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra is already working separately on hybrid and electric variants. The Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has proposed a project under which MNRE, Society Of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will work on hydrogen blend-powered vehicles. The Rs 6-crore project will focus on producing a commercially-viable hydrogen-CNG blended fuel by October 2009. The goal is to eventually have all new and existing CNG vehicles running on the new blend. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Eicher Motors, Ashok Leyland and Bajaj Auto will provide one vehicle each for the project — an Indica, a Scorpio, two light commercial vehicles and one three-wheeler, respectively.
The consortium will first attempt to find the right blend of hydrogen and CNG (between 0 and 30 per cent of hydrogen), which is compatible to all the engines. These tests will also determine whether minor adjustments need to be made to the fuel injectors, timing mechanisms and other parts of the existing CNG engines. If the hydrogen-CNG blend proves successful, the government is expected to invest heavily to market the fuel. This is part of MNRE’s overarching goal to have 1 million(10 lakh) vehicles running on hydrogen-based fuels by 2020 — about 20 per cent of all vehicles expected to be sold by then. Currently, an experimental hydrogen-CNG fuel station is running in Delhi to test on-site blending of the two gases. This will show whether existing CNG pumps can be similarly modified. But the project will need hundreds of such fuel stations.