Maruti Suzuki is expected to further strengthen its CNG portfolio in the coming months as the upcoming new-gen Brezza will likely get the S-CNG treatment
Back in April 2019, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) announced that it would stop selling diesel vehicles in India and by that time, the oil-burners contributed to 22 per cent of the total sales. To address the customers wanting to have fuel-efficient vehicles, Maruti Suzuki began expanding its CNG portfolio over the last few years and it has paid dividends.
By the end of last month, the CNG range of Maruti Suzuki was attributed to 15 per cent of the total volumes. If the CNG demand continues to exist and everything goes according to plan, the share of CNG vehicles could be similar to that of the diesel vehicles in 2019. MSIL is preparing to launch three to four more CNG variants based on the existing models over the next few months.
In November 2021, the Indo-Japanese manufacturer introduced the second generation Celerio and more recently, the CNG variant of the hatchback debuted. The upcoming CNG launches will help in increasing its market share as Shashank Srivastava, Senior ED – marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki believes “the share of CNG can exceed 22%, which we used to have in diesel,”.
The Tour S based on Dzire sedan pertains to the taxi market and it contributes to 78 per cent while the Ertiga CNG is responsible for 46.4 per cent of volumes in the PV space. With the expansion, MSIL will have 10-11 CNG cars reportedly. Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have a strong presence in the passenger CNG segment while Tata Motors has joined the party.
Tata introduced the CNG versions of the Tiago and Tigor a few days ago and its range will be expanded in the near future. The CNG cars are expected to contribute 30 per cent of the individual model’s sales volumes. In India, the CNG sales crossed 1.72 lakh units in 2020-21 and in the current fiscal, MSIL contributed to 82.5 per cent market share.
MSIL set a sales target of 2.5 lakh units of CNG vehicles in the current FY but it is unlikely to be reported. This is due to the reduced production in the aftermath of the health crisis. The upcoming second-generation Brezza will likely get a CNG variant upon its launch around April 2022 and it could be offered only with a manual transmission.