[ganesc]

As many have already mentioned, the reduction in diesel vehicle sales seem to be directly proportional to the diesel models sold. I personally like diesels for the torquey nature but I don’t think I would have a diesel option down the line.

More than EV’s, I would prefer hybrids. Both Honda and Toyota hybrids are decent to drive and give almost Diesel like mileage and is more practical. Prius and Camry are great examples.
I am not convinced we are prepared enough to move to an all electric setup just yet and I am afraid we may become a dump yard of these cars in future. We are still not self sufficient power wise (solar is the way to go & hope Govt asks every electric car household to setup a solar system first) and incase of a natural calamity, it will be as good as having nothing.

[Lalitha Venkat]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Fall in share of diesel car sales is due to one main reason - lack of diesel models in the entry and mid-segment cars. The cheapest diesel car available would cost around 10L OTR today.

PS: The running cost of my BS6 diesel is about Rs.2-2.5/km cheaper than the petrol options available for the same car, including the maintenance costs.

The difference between Diesel and Petrol car costs in a model say Jeep Compass is 5L (Model S variant). In order to recover the additional capital costs, the car needs to be used for at least 2.2 L kms. A typical 1,500 km running a month it will take 148 months and aggressive usage will take 75 months (3 k km/ month). If you buy the petrol Jeep and inves. t the 5 L in TML stock, with in 75 months you could buy one new Jeep with out selling your car.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by Lalitha Venkat

The difference between Diesel and Petrol car costs in a model say Jeep Compass is 5L (Model S variant). In order to recover the additional capital costs, the car needs to be used for at least 2.2 L kms. A typical 1,500 km running a month it will take 148 months and aggressive usage will take 75 months (3 k km/ month). If you buy the petrol Jeep and inves. t the 5 L in TML stock, with in 75 months you could buy one new Jeep with out selling your car.

That’s the thing. In the premium segment, diesel is invariably the superior engine on offer. The buyer is paying extra primarily for the better performance and enhanced driving experience. Compass is a textbook example. In this case, the small 1.4 petrol is rather weak and barely adequate. Had they offered a VW 2.0 TSI kind of turbo petrol, the sales split would not have skewed so heavily in favour of diesel.

Innova and Fortuner have a very decent and super reliable petrol automatic on offer that is comparatively cheaper to buy as well. What percentage of sales are petrol? Miniscule. People buy diesel because it is much better to drive. Lower running costs are just added bonus. And mind you, that petrol engine is not a guzzler.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Lalitha Venkat

The difference between Diesel and Petrol car costs in a model say Jeep Compass is 5L (Model S variant). In order to recover the additional capital costs, the car needs to be used for at least 2.2 L kms. A typical 1,500 km running a month it will take 148 months and aggressive usage will take 75 months (3 k km/ month).

I am afraid those numbers might not apply to Jeep as the FE difference between a petrol and diesel would a touch higher.

Here's my calculation:

Jeep Compass Model S (O) 1.4 Petrol DCT: 30.68L (OTR Hyderabad)
Jeep Compass Model S (O) Diesel 4x4 AT: 34.42L (OTR Hyderabad)

Difference is a little less than 4L, ignoring any discounts which might be running. I have taken automatics for both but the diesel has 4x4 advantage too. I chose Hyderabad as it doesn't have extreme road-tax structure.

Petrol Price: 110
Diesel price: 100

Based on ownership reviews of Team-Bhp, I am taking the following avg. FE numbers. It could be slightly off here and there.
Compass D: 15 kmpl
Compass P: 10 kmpl

Running cost (D): 6.67/km
Running cost (P): 11/km

For every 1000 kms you drive the diesel, you will save 4000+ bucks (again rounding off here). After a shade over 1L kms (assuming you invested the 4L saved earlier and got some return), you would have recouped the additional investment at the present fuel prices.

In the past, the resale values of diesels have been better than petrol, almost to the tune of recovering the extra premium paid for diesel. Trends have been changing and I can't say if it will be true when you sell the Compass after driving 1L kms.

All said and done, unless someone has heavy usage (>2500 kms per month, where saving would be more than 10k every month), a petrol makes more sense due to other associated issues with the diesel.

[NiInJa]

BS4 era was the best time to buy a small diesel car if one wanted to keep the car for a long time with minimal maintenance. With BS6, the engines have become sensitive to a lot of factors that are in control of the owner and environment in which the car is driven.

I predict a lot of small diesel BS6 cars in the used car market with DPF related issues in the next few years while bigger cars running on diesel will continue with their owners as the service costs will be manageable for them. BS6 diesel engines need to be driven with specific care and there are a lot of owners/drivers who want have to the time or luxury to do that. I was one of them

What small cars really need to overcome the need of a diesel engine is: upgrade above 1200cc NA petrol to bigger NA engines. Imagine having a 1.5l NA engine on a Swift, it would negate the need to have a complex 1.0 TC engine without additional investments for Maruti to localise it or train the service centers.

[manson]

A. Turbo petrol engines are just as much fun (if not more) as their diesel counterparts
B. Turbo petrol engines are supposed to be as heavy maintenance (if not more) as their diesel counterparts in the long run

Building up on both those for/against phenomenon it ultimately was a simple cost calculation whilst recently putting money down for our A4:

• Delta for cheapest diesel counterpart (BMW 320D) - 12 Lacs
• Saving per year between diesel and petrol for running of 15000 Kms - 6 Lacs over a period of 10 years
• Saving between lower purchase cost and higher fuel bills - 6 Lacs
• Saving in interest over the five years - 2 Lacs

Then again the total saving of 8 Lacs would be nullified with more involving drive of the 320D and there's a good chance the 8 Lacs would be even come back in full at time of selling the car. However should be wish to, there is higher change of being able to hold on to the petrol A4 if the 10 year diesel ban is introduced in Bombay as well.

[Turbo_head]

Originally Posted by Autolock123

Its a combination of factor that is driving drop of diesel,
1. High cost of upgradation of diesel mills to BS6 which led to many automakers discontinuing diesel
2. Govt. is also discouraging the diesel due to high emission levels, particularly NOx
3. Current price gap between petrol and diesel doesn't justify the incremental price one pays to acquire the diesel vehicle ( in most cases vehicle price difference between petrol and diesel is > 1.2 lac)
4. Though mid sized SUVs have a higher diesel share, most likely it will come down as upcoming emission norms will lead to diesel upgrading to more sophisticated after treatment systems leading to further cost increase for diesel vehicles

In my view, unless one has a high daily vehicle running, diesel doesn't make sense. From environment conservation perspective, its better to ditch diesels.

I beg to differ here.BS6 emissions are on par or less compared to the petrol counterparts so the environmental impact can be dismissed. Its nothing more than what a petrol car creates.

Till the transformation happens to a complete EV based cars, Diesels are to stay. Even though my running will be 1000-1200 per month I chose a diesel engine for the sheer fun to drive aspect.

[quattroa4]

Originally Posted by harry10

I recently got Kia Sonet Diesel Automatic.

So, roughly I will save 1Lac per year in fuel expense. Will keep it minimum for 7 years. So it's roughly a saving of 7 lac.

Also, price of-
Sonet HTX diesel auto - 13lac OTR.
Sonet HTX DCT - 12.50lac OTR.
Only a difference of 50k.

It was a no brainer to buy diesel.

For me the calculations seems to be perfect and the things are likely to stand like this even in near future also . What is mind boggling is as the things stands as mentioned above still there is this tectonic shift towards petrol powered cars in our market that the share of diesels have come down to just 17 %, hard to digest .

[rd18]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Diesel as a % of sales in models / segments where it is available as an option

However, if you look at numbers in the latter, one will see that diesel still enjoys immense popularity in segments & models where it is available. Example = more than half of Creta sales are from the diesel. Plus, diesel is the preferred option for SUVs & MPVs.

Looks like Altroz is an outlier here. Petrol sells a lot more than diesel. Maybe high difference in On-Road Price is a factor plus DPF nuisance in small engines(for buyers who were aware).

Since people have accepted diesel @100+ after petrol century run, any chance that the price of diesel will become more of petrol?

And with WFH reduction, the pinch of high fuel prices will be felt even more when office run increases.

[Mach_1590]

The reduction in diesel vehicles is due to

• The mass market manufacturer(Suzuki) which does almost half the volume has ditched the diesel from the portfolio.

• Wide spread use of turbo petrol for those who like torque surge.

• 10 year old diesel ban rule in large markets like Delhi NCR. I spot petrol Toyota Innova quite often now.

• Lack of usage due to the pandemic. Many folks still believe that diesel vehicle should be run daily.

• Expensive BS6 diesel engines and the DPF clogging issue with them.

[tsk1979]

Emission norms are also a factor. As cars became less and less capable of running on fuel available, people do not want to enter the DPF circus. Same thing happened in USA. Even though fuel quality is top notch, many people don't buy diesel trucks, and 6.7 cummins has given way to 7L gasoline engines.

Of course for bigger vehicles diesel it is because of torque needed, but full size trucks now are often sold with 5-8L gasoline engines.

However, I do see Indians driving Diesel mercedes and BMW cars. Can never figure out why.
Prolly old habits die hard?

[SoumenD]

Maruti stopping usage of Fiat’s national Diesel engine on its cars is probably the biggest reason for such a drop. And ofcourse lately people prefer petrols due to the smaller price gap between pricing of petrol and diesel. Pandemic induced WFH or hybrid working model has further pushed this trend as nowadays 5 day office is no more a norm at least in IT. So monthly running has reduced by 30-50% anyways justifying a petrol car more than ever.

I so hope more than electric manufacturers start getting in proper hybrids at affordable price. That’s what we need immediately more than electrics as our infrastructure will take years to justify electric purchases.

[quattroa4]

Here are some facts about the availability of alternative fuel ( CNG ) on which Maruti is betting big now a days . This is the latest report by Statista which shows that there are 3000+ stations of CNG in the country as against 61000+ fuel stations of petrol/ diesel. Not even 5% and Maruti is in to it big time .

[Mafia]

Maruti's lack of diesel engines must be the leading cause. The Balenos, Swifts, and Brezzas would have contributed big numbers.

Additionally, without analyzing deeply, the fuel price parity, means that the 1.0L+ premium on the petrol engine has less justification in the eyes of the common man.

The most unlikely cause is people are more environmentally conscious and are avoiding diesel engines

If all things work out, my next car will be a turbo diesel. The last decade of the IC engines is here. Better to enjoy the IC engines while they last.

[locusjag]

I would love to buy a proper 7/8 seater that can bear serious loads and perform efficiently and effortlessly. I've just described a quintessential Indian Diesel body on frame vehicle, actually. There was a time in the last 2 decades when the aspiring middle class Indian could buy a Xylo, Scorpio or Innova if he had 'made it' in life with his/her salaried income.

Now? Seeing all the DPF issues with BS6 diesels, forget about it. I'm beginning to tell myself that I should just stick to 5 seater vehicles and to start using public transport (trains/airlines) when we travel with extended family.

I've used petrol powered 7 seater and 8 seater cars in the US before but petrol sells over there at ~ 50 Rupees per litre (as per a rough Dollar --> Rupee and Gallon --> Litre conversion calculation). A 3-5 kmpl, 5 tonne, 8 seater, petrol powered Ford Expedition in India is simply unimaginable for all Indians. And so is a petrol powered 7-10 kmpl 7 seater Dodge Minivan for most Indians.

I have nothing to aspire for and very little to look forward to, in today's automotive market.