Maruti Suzuki, which stopped production and sale of diesel vehicles ahead of the transition to BSVI emission norms in April 2020, had reported best-ever sales of diesel vehicles of about 480,000 units in FY18. While diesel vehicles continue to comprise about 17.8% of passenger vehicle sales in the local market, the company said it would stay away from the segment and instead introduce more vehicles with CNG and strong hybrid powertrains for its customers.
“As emission norms become tighter, the investments required to make diesel vehicles compliant will raise sharply acquisition costs. Diesel does not make economic sense,” said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at Maruti Suzuki India, adding in the near term the company will focus on ramping up production and sales of CNG vehicles in the mass market as it is a cost-effective solution.
In the ongoing fiscal itself, Maruti Suzuki is looking at selling up to 450,000 CNG vehicles, up from 328,000 units sold in FY23. The company additionally has introduced two strong hybrid vehicles in its portfolio – the Grand Vitara and the Invicto – as alternates for consumers at the more premium end of the market. Combined sales of CNG and strong hybrid vehicles at the company stood at around 111,000 units last quarter.
Maruti Suzuki, which offers CNG options in 13 models, said it has seen an uptick in demand for vehicles driven by the fuel, post the government rationalising prices of natural gas earlier this year.
“We are seeing strong demand for CNG vehicles. CNG now accounts for 26% of our total sales”(compared to 20% in FY23),” Srivastava informed. The share of the fuel in overall sales of passenger vehicles in the industry stands at 13%, currently. Maruti Suzuki expects 25% of its sales to come from hybrid electric vehicles, 15% from EVs and 60% from internal combustion engine (CNG, Biogas, Ethanol, Flex-fuel) by 2030. Given lower running costs, automakers from Maruti Suzuki to Hyundai and Tata Motors have, in fact, been betting on CNG as an affordable option for the masses, especially at the lower end of the market. At present, CNG costs ₹73.59 a kg in Delhi and ₹79 in Mumbai. Petrol was priced ₹96.72 in Delhi and ₹106.31 in Mumbai on Sunday.The government too has been working on pushing adoption of CNG in the personal mobility space to curb crude imports.
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