[TusharK]

Fewer diesel hatchbacks and sedans were sold in 2017-18 as compared to 2012-13, when almost half the number of cars sold in India were diesel powered. According to a media report, diesel car sales dipped to merely 23% in 2017-18. This trend is expected to continue as the government pushes for cleaner technologies including electric cars.



Latest figures indicate that the share of diesel cars in the overall sales of Honda Cars India dropped from 67% to 25%. In 2014, 60% of all Honda City sedans sold were diesel powered. In 2017-18, these amount to 20% of the Honda City's sales. It is a similar story with Maruti Suzuki India Limited. The share of diesel variants in the total sales of the Ciaz sedan have dropped from 60% to just 30%.

On the other hand, in the SUV segment, majority of the cars sold are diesel powered. That said, more than 30% of Hyundai Creta owners opted for the petrol version. One of the reasons for this could be the narrowing gap between the prices of diesel and petrol. Also, buyers are opting for petrol version for their low initial cost of ownership and lower maintenance costs compared to their diesel counterparts.

Source: The Economic Times

[itwasntme]

Interesting to wait and see whether the resale values of petrol vehicles will rise corresponding to a decline in those of diesel ones. More so for SUVs of course.

The secondhand market is usually very well clued in to changing regulatory and customer dynamics. Has anyone noticed any change yet?

[Carma2017]

Diesel is dying and BSVI will ensure near extinction with vehicle pricing increasing exhorbitantly for common use cars. Gasoline s and Hybrids are the near future. I have my doubts about EV. So, won't call them long term future till we have a revolutionary battery.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Carma2017

Diesel is dying and BSVI will ensure near extinction with vehicle pricing increasing exhorbitantly for common use cars. Gasoline s and Hybrids are the near future. I have my doubts about EV. So, won't call them long term future till we have a revolutionary battery.

Not only that, the reduction of useful life to 10 years will also contribute to some sense coming into the market.

As for EVs, we need a good network for recharging to cars and the drivers (while they wait). In most of India, we need A/C in the summer, further restricting the range.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Fewer diesel hatchbacks and sedans were sold in 2017-18 as compared to 2012-13, when almost half the number of cars sold in India were diesel powered. According to a media report, diesel car sales dipped to merely 23% in 2017-18.

I am frankly shocked that the number has fallen this low. If we remove utility vehicles (many UVs sell in diesel only), then for passenger cars, the number is perhaps below 20%.

Take a look at this thread. While some cars sell a good amount in diesel, others (e.g. Grand i10, Jazz) get merely 12 - 13% of their sales from the oil-burner.

[Vik0728]

My Polo GT TDI was the first diesel car in my "Khandan", let alone my family!!
So I can really imagine how challenging, and at times unconventional it can be for some families to shift to an oil burner.

However, I have become a life long oil-burner fan, and although there will be various cars (hopefully) in my garage, there will always be one fast, frugal and fun-to-drive diesel.

Ironically, I feel good when I see such stats as my exclusivity just goes up!!

[jpcoolguy]

If and when MSIL launches the Petrol variants of Brezza and S-Cross, the tilt towards Petrol may become some more prominent due to the volume of Brezza every month.

[bhavik.1991]

Price gap between petrol-diesel is just 5.5 INR in states like Gujarat.

Now a days, I rarely see 'Applied for registration' mass market cars with DDiS, CRDi, iDTEC, TDi or TDCi badges in Ahmedabad.

[iamahunter]

I believe there are multiple factors to it..

1. The cost of the diesel cars has grown. I mean the difference between the petrol and diesel counterparts of the same car has increased. Back in 2011 when I got my Swift DDIS, the difference was a mere 30-40k between VDi and VXi. In the next couple of years it went up to 60-80k.

2. The cost of Diesel itself has gone up. Due to various reasons as put forth by the ministry the cost of diesel has gone up by almost 40-50%. Eg: Diesel costed ~Rs 42 per liter in 2012, now its upto Rs 60 per liter.

3. The manufactures being very choosy about the automatic variants. As we have observed, now a days people are preferring automatics. Manufactures are not very open to offering automatics in diesel cars. A very few percent of Hatchbacks(50% of the car market) are offered in diesel automatics.

[PrideRed]

Until the Govt. decides to pull the plug or until EV makes it to mainstream, Diesel is here to to stay even if is priced similar to Petrol.
1. Diesel is anyday more fuel efficient than similarly powered Petrol.
2. Barring Turbo petrols, diesel is by far the most fun to drive.
3. Service costs are almost same as petrols.

Biggest drawback with Petrol is Fuel efficiency and outright power. Take example of Swift- the 1.3DDiS is lot more powerful and is lot more fuel efficient than VTVT. In Petrol cars, the drop in Fuel efficiency is significant while driving in traffic or high speed!

[Tarmac.terrorist]

Seeing the dying demand for diesels and harsher and harsher norms for diesel engine, IMO what we need is turbo petroleum in all car classes. Especially sub 20 lakh. I love high revving petroleum but still incline towards diesel due to the torque surge. A turbo petrol will fulfill both the requirements.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Until the Govt. decides to pull the plug or until EV makes it to mainstream, Diesel is here to to stay even if is priced similar to Petrol.
1. Diesel is anyday more fuel efficient than similarly powered Petrol.
2. Barring Turbo petrols, diesel is by far the most fun to drive.
3. Service costs are almost same as petrols.

Biggest drawback with Petrol is Fuel efficiency and outright power. Take example of Swift- the 1.3DDiS is lot more powerful and is lot more fuel efficient than VTVT. In Petrol cars, the drop in Fuel efficiency is significant while driving in traffic or high speed!

I agree with the 1st one. And that's it.

2. Drive an Ivtec. slot into 1st, Floor the pedal. Press the clutch, upshift..and repeat. And watch for the turbo to spool in in the diesel car following you in your ORVM. And even the most refined diesels can't hold a candle to the refinement of a petrol one. High performance cars almost exclusively run on petrol. Which car would be more fun to drive than a Bugatti veyron/chiron?

And similar capacity petrol engines are more powerful than the diesels. Plonk a turbo and the torque would also be almost there.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

I agree with the 1st one. And that's it.

2. Drive an Ivtec. slot into 1st, Floor the pedal. Press the clutch, upshift..and repeat. And watch for the turbo to spool in in the diesel car following you in your ORVM. And even the most refined diesels can't hold a candle to the refinement of a petrol one. High performance cars almost exclusively run on petrol. Which car would be more fun to drive than a Bugatti veyron/chiron?

And similar capacity petrol engines are more powerful than the diesels. Plonk a turbo and the torque would also be almost there.

Can we also compare the in gear acceleration of iVtec and say a TDi?
Refinement I agree that diesel can't match a petrol.
I already mentioned in my post "Barring turbo petrols", that said how many turbo petrols do we have under 20lacs bracket? Again turbo petrols don't come cheap and cost as much as diesel!

To me the Petrols will rule the roost in Hatch/sedan and compact SUV segment, while the Full size SUV will continue to be sold in large diesels.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Can we also compare the in gear acceleration of iVtec and say a TDi?
Refinement I agree that diesel can't match a petrol.
I already mentioned in my post "Barring turbo petrols", that said how many turbo petrols do we have under 20lacs bracket? Again turbo petrols don't come cheap and cost as much as diesel!

Let's count. We have MS boosterjet in baleno RS, TSI in polo/vento, T-jet in Linea, revotron in Nexon. And until recently we had Ecoboost as well.

Compare that to Fiat multijet, ford TDCI, VW TDI, nissan-ranault DCI and Tata revotorq. Pretty balanced petrol-diesel turbo offerings I would say.

Take your pick and compare the similar sized turbo petrol and turbo diesels and drive both (TSI and TDI for example, considering both are 1.2L) to see which one is more fun to drive.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

I agree with the 1st one. And that's it.

2. Drive an Ivtec. slot into 1st, Floor the pedal. Press the clutch, upshift..and repeat. And watch for the turbo to spool in in the diesel car following you in your ORVM. And even the most refined diesels can't hold a candle to the refinement of a petrol one. High performance cars almost exclusively run on petrol. Which car would be more fun to drive than a Bugatti veyron/chiron?

And similar capacity petrol engines are more powerful than the diesels. Plonk a turbo and the torque would also be almost there.

To be fair, nobody cross shops between the bugatti and the Swift, or even a bmw. There is a huge improvement in the performance of diesel engines over the last two decades and its not at the cost of economy. Petrol performance is dependent on the quality of fuel and a 530d with the kind of diesel you put in a truck will smoke a vtec in whatever form.

The added advantage of not having to search for a decent fuel pump on the highway negates any performance advantage. The most popular vehicles today are SUVs and even Americans say that petrols without torque make the cars lazy. Peaky performance isn't a luxury trait, torque low down in the rev range is what you have in really posh cars.

Luxury car owners don't buy petrol for a reason, refinement doesn't count in resale and burning money on a depreciating asset is foolish. Check out the forum members with multiple cars, most of the time the entire garage is diesel. The graph will reverse if the value of cars is taken into account.