The World Environment Day celebrated today encourages people to a car for the environment and save resources as much as possible. Certain methods to conserve resources include running a building or household for one hour or so in order to reduce the stress on the environment. While these aren't long-term solutions to conserve resources, a car company has taken the conservation of one particular resource, water to the next step. Maruti Suzuki India Limited has now introduced its Dry Wash System in over 1,100 workshops across the country and will eventually follow this for cleaning the cars coming in for service. |
In this system, the cars that come for cleaning will use water for underbody washing, however, the rest of the exteriors would not use one-tenth of the quantity (approximately). This cleaning process consists of a dry foam polish, hand gloves made out of a material similar to a towel, wipers for glass areas and micro fibre cloths. The entire kit is available to customers at a retail price of Rs 12,000, however, a smaller kit which includes a pre-mixed polish and a microfibre cloth is available for Rs 860 inclusive of all taxes. |
As you can see here a Ciaz is undergoing the cleaning process in which the excess dust was fist wiped off, after which the dry foam polish was applied. The system at workshops uses an air compressor which pressurises the dry foam polish put in a reservoir and sprayed on the car. One litre of water is mixed with 50 ml of the dry foam polish. The foam polish is available in the high-end kit in a one-litre format and it can clean over 20 cars. Once the foam polish is applied, it is allowed to settle for a few minutes and then spread over with the towel gloves. |
The foam enters all the tiny gaps and crevices ensuring that the car is completely covered with it. Once this is done, the foam is wiped off using a microfibre cloth turning it completely clean. In addition, before the microfibre cloth is used to clean the car, wipers can be used to clean the glass areas. The entire process of cleaning the exterior of the car takes approximately 20 minutes as opposed to the conventional system which takes about 45 minutes. In 2016-17, Maruti Suzuki saved 216 million litres of water. Such small initiatives surely go a big way without losing out on customer satisfaction while reducing the precious resources like water. |
World Environment Day is celebrated on 5th June every year to conserve natural resources like water. Maruti Suzuki, in its initiative towards saving water has introduced a waterless wash system which has a substantial reduction in water consumption during cleaning a car. If your car has gone for a service or any other aftersales treatment, the final bit that happens after this is cleaning the car inside out. A conventional method would involve a high-pressure wash which not only takes a considerable time to clean, but also involves wastage of a lot of water. Since salt water or non-edible water would reduce the life of the paintwork on a vehicle, dealers have to resort to ground water in order to wash the car thoroughly. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, however, is now moving from the conventional method to a new 'Dry Wash System'. Not only the wash time for workers has reduced to 20 minutes from approximately 45 minutes on each vehicle, the new method has saved around 216 million litres of water every year. The system is available in 1,130 workshops and nearly 2.28 million vehicles were cleaned using this system in the 2016-17 fiscal year. This is three times the increase of the cars cleaned using this method in the 2015-16 timeline. The Dry Wash System involves using comparatively lesser quantity of water without compromising on the quality of cleaning. The entire kit consists of a dry foam polish, micro fibre cloths, wipers and towel hand gloves. The process starts off with dusting off the car with excess dirt or dust after which the car is sprayed with the dry foam wash. This is the only place where the cleaning process involves water which is minimal. To put it in perspective, if the conventional process involves 20 litres of water, this system involves barely 500 ml. Once the foam is sprayed, it is allowed to settle and then spread across the entire exterior of the car using the hand towels The next process involves cleaning the body of the car with a micro fibre cloth, however, before the cleaning starts, windows, rear glass and the windshield are cleaned using wipers, after which the entire car is cleaned using the microfibre cloths. The time taken for the entire system is approximately 20 minutes which is considerably lesser than the conventional method since it needs a lot of water which needs to be dried up more than once, even using a micro fibre cloth. Here this sweep has to be done once, or at most, twice. The system isn't a completely waterless one, however, the amount of water saved is not just considerable, but, substantial. Not only does it reduce the amount of operation costs at a dealership, it also reduces the water consumption involved in cleaning a vehicle. With Maruti Suzuki's initiative across a number of workshops, the company not just plans to have a cost-effective method for workshops, but also, make this entire process more environment-friendly. At this World Environment Day, the company has started what would be a small initiative to save water but it is a positive commitment which would go a long way in conserving natural resources and the environment. |
Not be left behind on World Environment day Hyundai Motor India have launched a save water campaign and like Maruti are also promoting ‘Dry Wash’. Their 45 days campaign will be conducted in association with Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers and will take place at 1,254 Hyundai Dealerships across the length and breadth of the country between June 5th and the 19th of July. Hyundai being a caring & responsible corporate promotes ‘Dry Wash’ for cars with the aim of saving 120 litres of water per car. Post conclusion of the campaign, Hyundai will donate the same amount of water to the drought affected areas in India. Hyundai claims their Dry Wash will save almost 120 litres of water for every car that is washed. To further their cause, after the campaign is done. Hyundai will donate the same amount of water they save in the process to drought affected regions in India. Commenting on the initiative Mr Rakesh Srivastava, Director, Sales & Marketing, HMIL, said, “Being a socially responsible & environmentally conscious manufacturer, Hyundai believes in the philosophy of preserving the environment and its resources for a better future. As a part of our CSR activations, we regularly engage in environment-friendly initiatives to create strong awareness among the communities. On World Environment Day, we pledge our sensitivity towards the environment and this campaign is one such”. Dry Wash, aside Hyundai, will also engage a series of environmentally friendly campaigns across dealerships and workshops targeted at raising awareness among customers. Including dealers being required to use environment-friendly water-based automotive paints and also encourage their valued customers to plant more trees. |
In this system, the cars that come for cleaning will use water for underbody washing, however, the rest of the exteriors would not use one-tenth of the quantity (approximately). |
Originally Posted by paragsachania
(Post 4211445)
At the end of the day, passing the buck on caring the environment and then expecting customers to remain complacent if washing is not as per expectations - Seems to me that this will be the biggest and easiest way to get away from iffy customers who care more about washing quality rather than the service itself. As for me, I will continue to visit washing centers to only get the wheel arches and underbody sprayed with pressurized water and wash the car myself as I have been doing so till now. |
Originally Posted by condor
(Post 4211589)
This is being practiced by Prerana Motors @Peenya for more than a year now. I dont know about other Tata Motors dealerships, though. |
Originally Posted by razer2911
(Post 4211600)
By the way how much are the service centers charging for this? Is it the same as a regular wash? |
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