Maruti still studying diesel options for its future cars

The country’s largest passenger vehicles manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), still thinks there is not much requirement for diesel option for its cars immediately. The company has stopped offering diesel options for the last two years.

Speaking to BusinessLine, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), MSIL said, “We are still reevaluating on it if there really is a requirement for diesel vehicles to be brought in. We are analysing data and getting market feedback and we will decide on the reintroduction of the diesel vehicles.”

He, however, added that whenever there is a market for diesel, MSIL will launch products with the existing 1.5-litre engine.

Electric vehicles

Asked about electric vehicles (EVs), Srivastava said that the market is still nascent. “Right now it is only two per cent of EVs as compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. To make a business case you need to have a sustainable volume and probably hybridisation is the way – we have to talk about electrified cars and not electric cars alone because the powertrain of a hybrid vehicle is similar to ICE and the localisation will happen which will bring down the cost and further generate volume. We have been saying that and the direction has been clear,” he said.

PLI scheme

Asked about the latest production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Srivastava said that it is progressive and will push the thrust towards EVs. Having said that he added that while the infrastructure of charging, cost of acquisition, would come down, but cost of battery still has to be brought down.

“Last year only 5,000 electric passenger cars were sold which is less than 0.5 per cent of the overall PV sales. But, it is a good beginning and we have been saying it should continue to grow to reach up to an inflection point...how fast we can reach there, is a big question though. So, PLI scheme probably can help in achieving that a little bit,” he said.

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Till then, Srivastava said that manufacturers have to continue work on fuel efficient vehicles, which MSIL has been doing.

“Most analysts are saying EVs will form 8-10 per cent of the total salesby 2030 which means a CAGR of of 7 per cent as per current calculation. That means out of 70 million cars sold in India, around seven-million will be EVs. So still 63 million will be of ICE engines. So what do you do with those 63 million vehicles which are sold?...you have to improve the fuel efficiency to reduce the environment factor,” Srivastva added.