Maruti Suzuki plans to widen CNG portfolio amid rising petrol, diesel costs

Given the rising petrol and diesel prices across the country, automaker Maruti Suzuki India is looking at widening its CNG portfolio by offering the fuel option in four more models "very shortly". The Delhi-headquartered automaker has 8 models of total 14 models currently, with CNG fuel option.

“Currently, we have eight models which have CNG options out of our total of 14 models but we plan to add another four very shortly in this portfolio,” MSIL Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) Shashank Srivastava told news agency PTI. Srivastava said Maruti Suzuki will develop and introduce more CNG models in the future.

He, however, did not divulge any details about the timelines for introducing these models. The senior Maruti Suzuki executive said that demand for CNG vehicles went up on the back of rising petrol and diesel prices. Out of the company’s total pending order of 2.8 lakh units, 1.1 lakh orders are for CNG models.

"The running costs for a petrol or diesel has climbed up to almost Rs 5 a kilometer whereas, for CNG it remains around Rs 1.7 per per kilometer. The running cost is so different now that a petrol or diesel vehicle is three times as expensive to run (as compared to) a CNG vehicle. That I think is the number one reason for people suddenly switching to CNG," Srivastava said.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki also has plans to launch an electric vehicle for the Indian market by 2025 and is currently tracking the country’s EV ecosystem to figure “the best way of evolution” to offer affordable EVs with hassle free charging infrastructure to clock high volumes.

"I think this (EV) is a very new thing happening in our country, it is evolving. So we are watching the situation closely and trying to find out what is the best way of evolution in that direction," he said.

He said to have a sustainable EV business model, there must be high volumes for which the vehicle has to be reasonably priced as India is a very price sensitive market.

(With PTI inputs)

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