Maruti Suzuki is planning to fill the void left by the exit of its small diesel engines with CNG, post April 2020.
With the BS6 norms around the corner, Maruti Suzuki, country’s biggest automaker is considering CNG alternatives to fill in space vacated by its small diesel cars. The BS6 norms will kick in from April 1 , 2020, and are said to push the prices of diesel engines significantly higher. The company feels that CNG is the future for most of its small engined offerings.
The company has already announced its plan to phase out diesel engines from April 2020. Currently, diesel accounts for about 23% of all the sales of the automaker. Discontinuing diesel engines is going to leave a big void in the automaker’s portfolio. The company believes that CNG could fill this void. Currently, most of the automaker’s popular models including WagonR, Dzire and Ertiga are already available with a CNG option.
It is estimated that about 30 lakh vehicles plying on the Indian roads are powered by CNG. The key markets are Delhi-NCR, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Maruti has already sold over 5 lakh CNG vehicles in the country so far. These numbers are only going to rise as even the government is now planning to expand the reach of CNG by opening up new filling stations.
Even though the automaker is focusing primarily on CNG and petrol engines with 7 of their petrol-powered models already BS6 compliant, all is not lost for diesel engines. The automaker has stated that they will be studying the demand for bigger diesel engines post the introduction of BS6 norms. If there will be significant demand, the automaker will consider introducing bigger diesel engines.
Maruti Suzuki CNG
– The automaker is considering CNG alternatives to fill in space vacated by small diesel cars
– Cars like WagonR and Dzire are already available with a CNG option
– If demand exists, bigger diesel engines will still be considered
