[MaxTorque]

Maruti Suzuki's top brass confirms the decline in the sales of diesel cars.

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker by volumes told NDTV that it has a flat sales growth projection for 2013-14, as diesel car sales continue to decline. Maruti did not give an exact number but said, the percentage of diesel cars being sold of all the passenger car sales for the industry has declined to 54 per cent.

[Rajeevraj]

Diesel Car Share reduces to 26% in May as per SIAM. When this thread was started ~3 years back, the trend towards petrol was just starting after a period of diesel dominance.

According to numbers from industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), diesel accounted for 26% of total car sales in May this year. "This is quite a fall, considering that the contribution of diesel variants was as high as 52% just four years back," says Sugato Sen, deputy DG at Siam.

Apart from the regular reasons like cost difference reducing and ban fears, another reason called out is the fact that the upgrade cycles are coming down (3-5) years which means the chance of recovering the additional investment for a diesel car is also less.

Source: ETAuto

[pgsagar]

I see this shift in AP state, too, which had all along been diesel crazy. A guy I know picked Ecosport petrol AT over Creta diesel AT and he feels happy to have saved over 6 lakhs. That should take care of his fuel bills for a few years.

[RavenAvi]

RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti-Suzuki India Limited, in conversation with ET Auto:

Q. The current ratio of diesel and petrol is almost moving towards 50:50. Where do you see this headed?

It will decrease to about 40%. After 2020, the price of diesel cars will rise further, and the smaller diesel cars actually will go out of production because a diesel car that costs Rs 5 lakh now, will cost a lakh more after Euro VI norms come into play. The equivalent petrol cars will still be about Rs 4 lakh. So, people will not buy diesel.

Full interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq1pmBMXad0

[RavenAvi]

Volkswagen's top R&D boss also echoes the sentiments shared by Maruti-Suzuki India's RC Bhargava earlier this month.

Small diesel-powered cars are expected to be phased out in the next two to three years and replaced by petrol-engined models using 48V mild hybrid technology, according to Volkswagen R&D chief Frank Welsch.

With tightening emissions regulations and real-world fuel economy testing coming into force, the cost of developing diesels is set to rise steeply. But with those costs being passed on to customers and profit margins on small cars already being so slight, Welsch believes few buyers will accept the price premium for a diesel on smaller models such as the Volkswagen Polo.

Autocar Professional

[RavenAvi]

Will the era of booming diesel car sales taper off into an abrupt end in the near future?

Not only has the overall market share of diesel cars shrunk to 27% (from 47% in 2012-13), but a bigger factor to consider here is the increasing percentage of petrol UVs in the market today - 16% (compared to just 3% in 2012-13).

Companies are aware of this shift in demand, and now we see petrol options in the big two UVs from Toyota - Innova Crysta & Fortuner, which were available in only diesel-powered options before.

Today, just one in five popular compact cars — such as the Baleno, Grand i10 and Tata Tiago — sold in the local market comes fitted with a diesel engine.
Petrol is making deeper inroads also into the utility vehicles space, where diesel has always been the preferred choice because of the higher fuel efficiency and torque.

“In terms of a typical compact segment car, the fuel cost forms the second biggest component after EMI … The break-even mileage level has increased (with higher fuel price), making the diesel car not a lucrative option for customers whose annual driving is less than 10,000 km,” said Subrata Ray, senior group vice president at ratings firm ICRA.

According to a study done by ICRA, diesel passenger vehicles meeting BS VI emission standards could cost Rs 75,000-100,000 more compared with the current ones.
“After 2020, the price of diesel cars will rise further, and the small diesel cars will go out of production because a diesel car that costs Rs 5 lakh now will cost a lakh more after Euro VI norms come into play. The equivalent petrol cars will still be about Rs 4 lakh. So, people will not buy diesel,” RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, told ETAuto.

All these means that the billions of dollars the automakers invested in diesel technologies and assembly lines in India will not bring the returns they expected.

ET Auto

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Companies are aware of this shift in demand, and now we see petrol options in the big two UVs from Toyota - Innova Crysta & Fortuner, which were available in only diesel-powered options before.

I suspect that this could be due to the arbitrary bans by NGT. Though I am happy for the consumer. About a year back, my requirement was for an XUV- ability to carry family, and also go on long interstate drives. My annual running is less and does not justify diesel, but what options did I have.

[RavenAvi]

According to freshly released industry data, diesels are still quite the force by pulling in majority of sales across most of the higher segments, except the entry-level hatchbacks and the B-segment hatchbacks.

The diesel option is the more preferred choice for customers as one moves up the price tag chain, with nearly 56% of all B-segment sedan (DZire, XCent, Amaze, Zest, Ameo, etc.) and nearly 66% of all C/D-segment sedan (City, Ciaz, Vento, Verna, Elantra, Corolla Altis, etc.) sales volumes attributed to the diesels.

Among luxury SUVs and MPVs (Audi Q5, BMW X3, etc.), diesel share is a complete 100%, while for the premium D-segment SUV/MPV market (Endeavour, Fortuner, Santa Fe, etc.), the market share of diesel sales is still a staggering 96%.

According to data, the only big volume segments where diesel is less than 30% of the market is the entry level mini car market comprising popular models like Maruti Alto, Tata Tiago, Renault Kwid, Maruti WagonR, among others. Even in the entry level A segment, diesel's share has grown from 1-5% due to the introduction of diesel models like Tata Tiago and Mahindra KUV100.

In comparison, diesel's share in the bulge bracket B-segment hatchback market has seen the sharpest erosion - down to 34% from 46% the year before. It is the only segment where customers have moved away from diesel.

"The problem with diesel was largely restricted to the Delhi-NCR region and although a few other states talked about action, nothing really happened on the ground. The reason diesel is more popular than petrol in higher end SUVs and MPVs is because of performance. In smaller vehicles, people are not looking for performance and use the car for city driving mostly so petrol suits them better. That segment is also value-conscious so the diesel-petrol model price differential also pinches them. As sentiments settle down, diesel will continue to dominate higher end SUVs and MPVs," said Abdul Majeed, partner, PwC.

ET Auto

[4x4addict]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Among luxury SUVs and MPVs (Audi Q5, BMW X3, etc.), diesel share is a complete 100%, while for the premium D-segment SUV/MPV market (Endeavour, Fortuner, Santa Fe, etc.), the market share of diesel sales is still a staggering 96%.

Until a few months ago, many of these were never offered in Petrol. I wanted a Petrol X3 but was told that it is not offered. For anyone who does 15000 KMs or less per year, it makes sense to go for Petrol.

[shankar.balan]

The only reason to opt for Diesel is the lovely grunty low end torque and pulling power.

All else points in favour of petrol.

Owing two 4WD vehicles; one of them fuelled by Diesel and the other, by Petrol, I am more and more convinced of the above fact.

[Strella]

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

Until a few months ago, many of these were never offered in Petrol. I wanted a Petrol X3 but was told that it is not offered. For anyone who does 15000 KMs or less per year, it makes sense to go for Petrol.

Till the beginning of last year BMW did not have a single petrol engine option in their line up for the below 1 crore price. It feels a little disappointing when you read that in other countries they offer so many engine choices, but here hardly any good choices.

Even now, all the good options are offered on the diesels and not on the petrols. A case in point, the 3 series in diesel is offered in Prestige, Sport Line, Luxury Line, M Sport. The equivalent petrol car only in Prestige and Luxury Line.

I also wanted to buy the Melbourne Red with a petrol engine , but none was offered on the 3 or 3GT, hence had to settle for 320d to get my Choice of colour. My car won't do more than 4-5000 kms in a year.