The buzzword round electrification is rising day-by-day however on the similar time, particularly within the passenger car section in India, the demand for CNG automobiles can be accelerating.
In reality, if one has to go by the pattern within the house, the CNG market has matured from being an aftermarket answer for the taxi trade to now a fast-growing providing within the private car house.
Maruti Suzuki India, one of many largest passenger car producers within the nation, can be the market chief within the CNG house. Thanks to introducing 8 fashions from the present line-up of 14 fashions within the passenger car vary with a CNG possibility, it accounts for nearly 96 per cent market share within the section.
“Of the 2.73 lakh CNG vehicles sold last year, Maruti Suzuki India sold about 2.34 lakh units,” shares Shashank Srivastava, Senior ED – Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India with Express Mobility.
Customer consciousness, safer possibility, equal efficiency to their petrol/diesel siblings, improved availability of gas stations and cheaper worth of the gas, has made CNG automobiles far more acceptable to the lots.
Hyundai Motor India has launched CNG possibility for the Grand i10 NIOS, Aura, Santro and Xcent. It can be “open to expanding its CNG portfolio in case of an opportunity arises.”
Tarun Garg, Director – Sales, Service & Marketing, Hyundai Motor India provides, “We are seeing an excellent traction for CNG vehicles. It provides a very good option to customers in terms of reduced total cost of ownership. Not only is the price of CNG fuel less than petrol/diesel, but the fuel efficiency too is relatively better. Plus of course the benefits of lower emissions. All in all, CNG provides a very good option to customers in cities where CNG pumps are available.”
In reality, in response to Hyundai Motor India’s inside evaluation, the month-to-month common gross sales of CNG merchandise have grown from 3,132 items in CY2021 to 4,946 items within the January-May 2022 interval. The firm bought 37,854 CNG automobiles final 12 months, in in comparison with 24,730 items within the first 5 months of 2022.
For Tata Motors’ the 2 merchandise within the CNG providing – Tiago and Tigor – contribute 10 per cent of its total gross sales quantity.
“With rising cost of petrol and diesel and the increasing need for eco-friendly cars, the CNG segment has started witnessing growing demand. One of the major reasons for this increasing demand is the low cost of ownership of a CNG vehicle and increasing accessibility of CNG stations. Furthermore, about 52% of the sales of Tigor and Tiago come from iCNG,” mentioned the corporate in an announcement.
Maruti’s Srivastava expects that regardless of the semiconductor scarcity impacting total manufacturing and deliveries the general passenger car section will see CNG car gross sales to the touch or surpass 4 lakh mark.
“Share of diesel vehicles is coming down and is now about 18 per cent compared to a share of 58 per cent almost 8-9 years. The share of diesel vehicle sales has remained at 18 per cent for almost last 18 months, whereas the share of CNG vehicles has been increasing. Many new OEMs are launching CNG models. And for existing players including Maruti Suzuki we will expand the CNG range. That should obviously increase CNG penetration in the passenger vehicle segment,” shares Srivastava.
He cites the instance that with simply 14 fashions (throughout OEMs) the penetration of CNG automobiles is 11 per cent, which implies there’s a large headroom for development.
When queried if there may be potential of CNG fashions in automobiles within the above Rs 10 lakh vary?
“Yes, it is absolutely there. We also used to think that customers for higher-end models would not like CNG, as it was seen as more related to only fuel savings. There were questions on safety and performance, but now with retrofitting being not allowed in the BS VI era, we see a change in customer perception towards the factory fitted CNG models. The perception has changed especially in terms of safety, performance and driving experience. They are looked in a positive manner. Therefore, the acceptability has increased, and even in the higher-end segment, from a research point of view that we did the acceptance is quite likely. The Indian consumer is very sensitive to the running cost, the initial cost of acquisition is one part, but running cost is the other one,” concludes an optimistic Srivastava.
Also learn: Top 10 most fuel-efficient CNG automobiles in India in 2022: Celerio CNG to Tiago CNG
Source: www.financialexpress.com”