Compact diesel vehicles find few takers

MUMBAI: With the petrol-diesel price gap closing, car makers feel compact diesel vehicles in the sub- ₹8 lakh range could be under pressure. Consumers are increasingly preferring petrol cars, given that the price differential between BS-VI diesel and petrol cars has increased substantially. Compact diesel cars such as Mahindra KUV100, Toyota’s Etios range, Hyundai i10 NIOS and Tata Tiago are likely to take a hit. Experts maintain that Maruti Suzuki’s calculated risk of exiting the diesel space and moving to an all-gasoline portfolio has paid off. Hyundai’s i10 Nios, which is in the personal segment, could take a hit but its SUVs Creta and Venue skew towards diesel. Mahindra and Toyota have a large dependence on diesel. Diesel penetration in passenger vehicles over the years has been steadily coming down from 58% in 2012-13 to 28% in 2019-20. The last quarter of 2019-20 saw the overall diesel penetration as low as 17%. The share of diesel sales in small cars has been falling from 36% in 2012-13 to 5% in 2019-20. It’s prompting rework of product planning strategy and focus on petrol versions. They have started reducing dependence on diesel models over the last few years. In 2019-20, diesel share in Maruti’s portfolio was 17.9%, Hyundai’s was 25.4%, Honda at 19.7% and Tata Motors at 32.3%. M&M and Toyota had a larger share at 92.3% and 70.2%, respectively. Mahindra, a predominantly diesel player given its utility vehicles, has had to go back to the drawing board to realign its product mix.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3elFSmZ