Costlier gas drives consumers in direction of CNG automotive variants

With few electrical choices available in the market and affordability a serious hurdle for EV possession in India, the rising gas costs during the last one 12 months appear to have nudged automotive consumers in direction of the CNG variants. Market chief Maruti Suzuki India Limited has seen a pointy rise in sale of CNG variants during the last 4 years, taking its share from 4.6 per cent of the full vehicles bought in FY18 to 17.2 per cent within the first 4 months of FY22.
While the corporate bought 75,000 CNG variants (4.6 per cent of its complete gross sales) in FY18, the gross sales of the CNG variants went as much as 1.63 lakh items (11.5 per cent of its complete gross sales) within the 12 months ended March 2021. With petrol costs breaching the Rs 100-mark throughout numerous states within the nation, the final 4 months have seen a giant leap in gross sales of CNG variants. In the four-month interval between April and July, MSIL has bought 58,000 items (17.2 per cent of its complete gross sales) and the corporate expects to promote round 3 lakh autos which might be CNG variants.
“As per kilometre running cost of petrol and diesel vehicle has reached around Rs 4-5, a large number of new car buyers are going for CNG vehicles as the running cost for them is much lower at around Rs 1.6-1.7 per kilometre. The demand has also improved for these cars on account of improvement in CNG infrastructure across the country,” stated Shashank Srivastava, senior government director at Maruti Suzuki India Limited.
While MSIL expects an extra improve within the share of CNG variants, Srivastava stated this 12 months the corporate expects to promote round 3 lakh items of the variant.
While CNG’s share in total sale of MSIL this 12 months is 17.2 per cent, the corporate stated that the share is far greater if one appears at its share throughout the 8 fashions that provide the variant. Srivastava stated that stated that within the interval between April and July, the share of CNG variants throughout the 8 fashions stood at 34 per cent, up from 26 per cent final 12 months. So, this 12 months, one in each three vehicles bought throughout these 8 fashions was a CNG automotive.
While Maruti has been growing the supply of CNG variants throughout its fashions, the demand has risen additionally on account of availability of CNG throughout states. The CNG station community has grown almost thrice within the final 5 years. From 1,071 CNG stations in April 2016, the quantity rose to three,101 stations in April 2021. The presence throughout cities has additionally grown from 66 cities in 2014 to 266 as of July 2021. This is ready to develop additional with the Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister stating final 12 months that India would have 10,000 CNG stations in subsequent 7- 8 years.
Even in a Covid 12 months, CNG enlargement continued in quick tempo. While 477 stations have been added in 2019-20, 894 new CNG stations have been added throughout India in 2020-21.