The country's largest carmaker
Maruti Suzuki India is
looking
at
option
to
fill in the
space
vacated
by
small
diesel
engine
cars in future, according
to a senior company official.
The company had in April this year announced that it would stop selling
diesel
cars from April 2020, when BS-VI is implemented in the
domestic market, citing feasibility issues after cost escalation due
to the new emission norms.
At the time of announcement around 23 per cent of all the units sold
by the company in the domestic market were
diesel
cars.
Presently, MSI offers its popular models Alto, AltoK10, Celerio, WagonR, Dzire, Ertiga in
CNG option along with
light commercial vehicle, Super Carry.
"For
Maruti Suzuki in the future,
CNG vehicles are likely
to make up for the
space
vacated
by
small
diesel
engine
cars," MIS Senior Executive Director (Engineering) C V Raman told PTI.
"We believe that for a
small car,
CNG is a very good option. It is an alternative
to oil consumption. We have the widest range of
CNG
cars for our customers. We are keen
to promote green fuels," he further said.
Besides, the government's focus is also
to expand the gas-based economy, Raman added.
"There is a lot of emphasis on expanding
CNG availability in the country," he added.
In the April-July period this fiscal, MSI's domestic sales were
at 4,74,487 units as against 6,17,990 units in the year-ago period, down 23.2 per cent.
An estimated 30 lakh
CNG vehicles are currently plying on the Indian roads
at present with sales majorly in Delhi-NCR, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Cumulatively, MSI has sold over 5 lakh
CNG
cars so far.
MSI has, however, kept its options open saying if there is demand for bigger
diesel
engine after BS-VI implementation, it will consider offering its consumers the same.
Although, it is currently focussing only on making petrol and
CNG engines BS-VI compliant. It is already offering seven of its models in petrol BS-VI engines.