The latest firm to apparently wake up and smell the carbon-neutral coffee is Suzuki, which has just announced its plans for moving all of its products away from fossil fuels, and towards a carbon-neutral goal, by 2030.
The plans cover the firm’s cars and marine engines, as well as motorbikes and scooters, and Suzuki is promising a new battery electric bike for 2024, in the small bike sector. It also says that it is aiming to have another eight eco-friendly “small and mid-sized” models in its range by 2030, at least two of them battery-powered, and the rest will look to use carbon-neutral fuels of an unspecified type. Suzuki is part of the all-Japanese brand Swappable Battery Consortium, which was formed in 2019 to create a common standard for a rechargeable battery format that will be used in Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki motorcycles.
To achieve a total revamp of its range in less than a decade will obviously require lots of research and development of new technologies – and the firm is looking at innovations such as hydrogen and solar power. Suzuki also has a pilot plant in India which can convert cow dung into methane biogas which can be used in suitably-modified powertrains.
The firm also announced plenty of hard cash to support its R&D push. Suzuki says it will invest ¥2 trillion (£12.6bn) in R&D expenses along with a further ¥2.5 trillion (£15.8bn) for capital expenditures – a total of ¥4.5 trillion by 2030.