New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car-maker, is betting on CNG-powered and strong hybrid vehicles to make up for the loss in volumes from discontinuation of diesel vehicles.
In April 2019, the company announced its plans to discontinue selling diesel cars in the country from 1 April 2020, citing uncertainty over demand for such vehicles due to significant increase in their prices following introduction of BS VI emission norms.
“In 2017-18, we sold about 4.75 lakh diesel vehicles, which was about 30 per cent of our total sales. At that time, CNG (sales) were about 74,000 units,” Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director (marketing and sales), Maruti Suzuki, told ThePrint.
He added that CNG vehicle sales are on the rise and may go up to 4.5 lakh units this year. “We sold 1.07 lakh units of CNG-powered vehicles in the first quarter of this year (April-June 2023). We expect to sell about 4 lakh CNG vehicles this year, but can go up to 4.5 lakh units also if prices (fuel/CNG) remain the same. With 4.5 lakh CNG vehicles, plus hybrid vehicle sales, we can say these will match the numbers we had for diesel vehicles,” Srivastava said.
In the first quarter of 2023, the company sold 3,800 units of strong Hybrid vehicles.
The company’s diesel vehicles sales stood at 4.43 lakh units in 2016-17, 4.41 lakh units in 2018-19, and 2.53 lakh units in 2019-20, post which it exited the market.
Maruti Suzuki has eight diesel vehicles in its portfolio, including Swift, Dzire, Ertiga, Baleno and Ciaz. Now the company offers 13 CNG models such as Celerio, WagonR, Ertiga, Swift, Dzire, XL6, Baleno and Grand Vitara. For strong Hybrids, it currently sells Grand Vitara and has announced the launch of Invicto.
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Diesel not viable anymore
“Diesel has a lot of restrictions. For example, in Delhi the age of diesel vehicles is 10 years and other states are also putting restrictions. Then rumours keep coming that the diesel will stop for all towns with more than 10 lakh population.. so even consumer confidence in diesel (vehicles) has dropped,” he said.
Srivastava added that for the passenger vehicle segment, diesel vehicles comprise 18 per cent of the overall market currently, down from 58 per cent in 2012-13.
“This share has been falling continuously. In 2013-14, it was 53 per cent in 2014-15, it was 47.8 per cent. Then in 2015-16, it was 44 per cent, in 2016-17 it was 41 per cent and 2017-18 market share was 40 per cent. In 2018-19, it was 36.5 per cent and 30 per cent in 2019-20. Then Maruti exited the market. So it dropped further,” he said.
He added that while earlier, the price difference between a petrol and diesel vehicle was about Rs 1-1.10 lakh, post introduction of BS VI emission norms, this went up to Rs 1.5-2 lakh. “Diesel became very expensive… At the same time, diesel and petrol price differences came down significantly. That is the fundamental reason that diesel (vehicle sales) are coming down…It doesn’t make economical sense for a lot of people,” he said.
He added that the demand for diesel vehicles is declining globally as well. “Europe, which was a big diesel market, is seeing a decline in demand for such vehicles, if you see in Japan, the US and the Middle East, the share of diesel (vehicles) is almost zero. Diesel is being replaced by newer technologies such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles,” he said. In Jodhpur, at the invitation of Maruti Suzuki.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)