India’s First Flex fuel Car To Be Unveiled On June 4: It's a Maruti!
Discussions around flex fuel vehicles have lately been getting hot. Now, we have confirmation that India’s first flex fuel vehicle (FFV) will be showcased ahead of World Environment Day and interestingly, it will be a Maruti! It will be shown at an event in hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri are expected to attend this event. Maruti Suzuki’s first FFV could be based on the Fronx or WagonR.
The World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has scheduled the event for June 4th- two days away from the day of writing. This aligns with what Minister Nitin Gadkari had recently said during his speech in Nagpur. Back then, he had openly stated that ‘Maruti Suzuki will launch vehicles running on 100% Ethanol on World Environment Day’.
This speech happened in late May. Back then, there was no confirmation from the manufacturer on the development. Now we know that the showcase is set to happen on the 4th. If the market launch would commence on June 5th, remains to be seen.
Interestingly, this is not the first ‘showcasing’ of Suzuki’s Flex Fuel models. The company had first shown an FFV version of the Wagon-R at the Auto Expo 2023. More recently, a flex-fuel version of the Fronx was shown at the Japan Mobility Show 2025. Even today, we believe that these two products have the highest chances of being put into production in the initial phase.
However, the possibility of Maruti Suzuki coming up with flex-fuel versions of other models cannot be ruled out either. The company had previously revealed that its 1.5 litre petrol engine can also be converted into flex-fuel version. If so, larger vehicles like the Ertiga could also get FFV versions.
FFV conversions of the Wagon-R and Fronx, showcased previously, did not feature major restyling or re-packaging. The internals were, however, reworked heavily- mainly plumbing and ECU changes. The production-spec could come with similar upgrades.
The Fronx FFV, shown in Tokyo, is E85 compatible. This means that this vehicle can run fuel blends of up to E85- 85% Ethanol blended petrol. It will have a heavily modified version of the regular car’s 1.2-litre Z12E naturally aspirated petrol engine.
On the outgoing Fronx, this unit makes 88hp and 113Nm. Hardware changes on the flex fuel version will include ethanol-resistant fuel lines, different fuel pumps and injectors. There will also be an Ethanol content sensor that will gauge the level of Ethanol in the fuel used and adjust combustion characteristics accordingly.
The second possibility is the Wagon-R FFV. This will be an affordable offering, just like the regular car. It will, in fact, become the country’s first mass-market FFV, if launched on June 5th. The Wagon-R already has a strong customer base in India- in both private and commercial segments.
The flex fuel version will be powered by an upgraded version of the 1.2-litre naturally aspirated engine. It will use a heated fuel rail, new injectors, recalibrated ECU, upgraded fuel pumps and will also come with Ethanol content sensors. The powertrain is expected to be able to handle fuel blends ranging from E20 to E85.