Maruti Suzuki believes that the arrival of the next phase of emission standards by 2023 will further reduce sales numbers of diesel vehicles
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) believes that the sales of diesel vehicles will come down drastically when the next phase of emission standards kick in by 2023 and thus it won’t be entering the segment. MSIL’s Chief Technical Officer C V Raman discussed about the matter and told in an interview that his brand won’t compete in the diesel space.
He further recalled the largest carmaker in the country’s notion of studying the diesel segment and if customer demands existed, it would make a comeback. However, after further evaluation going forward, he indicated that Maruti Suzuki will not be participating in the space as the upcoming more stringent emission norms would further bump up the costs.
This will dent sales of the diesel variants further according to the brand’s estimates. In recent years, the market penetration of the gasoline cars and CNG equipped passenger vehicles has only increased and in the sub-10 lakh space, only a few manufacturers offer diesel-powered variants right now and the number could decline in the coming times.
While electric vehicles are the future, companies are looking at alternatives to drive growth in the near future. Maruti Suzuki will bring in a host of new CNG vehicles in the coming years and it hopes to enter the zero-emission space around 2025. Raman noted, “In 2023 the new phase of emission norms will come which is likely to drive up the cost. So we believe that diesel percentages may further come down.”
He explained that MSIL does not have any “intention to participate in the diesel space”. The share of diesel vehicles is less than 17 per cent in the overall PV space – a huge drop from the 60 per cent share encountered in 2013-14 when diesel cars endured high popularity. Moreover, the availability of the diesel variants has reduced big time since the implementation of BSVI emission standards.
As for Maruti Suzuki, the 1.3-litre four-cylinder DDiS 200 diesel engine developing 90 PS maximum power and 200 Nm of peak torque was replaced by the 1.5-litre four-cylinder K15B mild-hybrid petrol engine kicking out close to 105 PS and 138 Nm. Recently, MSIL introduced the second generation Celerio with the industry-leading claimed fuel economy of 26.68 kmpl.