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Schneller recently shared this with other BHPians.
We can all agree that the future is electric and, I'm sure you all will also agree that it will need a lot of time to get the requisite infrastructure. Let's not forget that currently car penetration in India is around 30 cars per 1000 people. The majority of these 30 people are customers buying small hatchbacks and cheap cars. For them, EVs will remain unaffordable for the next 5-7 years. (Considering this segment, not the individuals, as they might grow financially and be able to afford EVs).
CNG has been around for a very very long time and it never really caught up well in private use. Every time the petrol prices soared, interest started building up but, people still went the diesel way. Today, let's take a look at why that happened and what is happening now.
Here's why people with higher running chose diesel cars:
Now, we know that the Government is focused on converting India to a gas-based economy, pushing for an increase of CNG stations to 10,000 countrywide by 2030 and, at the same time, it is focused on electrification too. Now let's see the problems:
Here are the advantages of EVs above CNG cars:
Here are the advantages of CNG cars over EV's
Going Forward
Here is how I feel the future would be. Maruti has said it may release pure CNG vehicles, NOT HAPPENING! What I feel should be the future going ahead is making cars on CNG platforms, not retrofitting kits. In Europe, check out the CNG vehicles, they have a proper boot and no visible CNG tanks. It's all installed where the spare wheel well would've been + a little lower. Petrol tanks made smaller and the sizes CNG of tanks increased. The CNG filling capacity in even small cars is about 10-14 KGS (actual filling not tank size).
Europe's largest CNG market, whose kits we happily label as the best (Italy), has VAG CNG cars in 9/10 spots in their best selling list. VAG has a lot of good technology when it comes to CNG and is the market leader in Europe
A lot has been said about CNG not taking off in Europe and the increasing share of EVs. People give Norway as examples but, let's take it into perspective. India's best selling car is the Swift, priced at Rs. 5.5 Lakh. Norway's best selling car is Audi e-tron, priced at 43 lakh rupees. You can gauge for yourself if that model will work well in India. People with higher running on highways will anyway not prefer vehicles like the Nexon EV.
Now, here is how I feel the future for CNG vehicles will take shape in India. Brands should now focus on launching vehicles on dedicated CNG platforms like Skoda's G-Tec, VW's TGI, SEAT's CNG and Fiat's CNG models too (Mercedes used to have Gas Drive). They have cylinders beneath the boot and have large boot space available + higher CNG capacity. For eg, the new Octavia G-Tec comes with a 1.5 TSI Engine with 3 concealed CNG tanks which can fill up to 17.33 KG of CNG. The Petrol tank is just 11 Litres in size. But, the engine is tuned for efficiency of 27-28 KM/KG. Imagine that FE on a Octavia. This is how it looks.
I would love to see CNG on the likes of Renault Kiger or Nissan Magnite. It was after-all Renault's current CEO who was the head of CNG (Development and everything) at VW. What I expect is companies like Maruti (also Toyota) to take the first step in developing cars like these, they already have the CNG technology and are betting big on CNG. Just need to work on the design a bit. Also, VW showed interest in CNG segment a few years back. If CNG picks up, VW might bring in their CNG models too. Also, CNG needs ATs (not AMTs).
For anyone having a running of above 70 KMs a day, it makes sense to buy a CNG car. My current running due to WFH/SFH is about 40-50 KMs a day. If it goes up, I might have to buy a dedicated CNG car with the current fuel costs.
The reason for writing this is to provide some insight into CNG as a lot of people have written about CNG as a fuel and thinking that the future will jump straight to electric. Increasing pollution control norms will gradually phase out diesels in small cars altogether very soon and CNG will be the choice. Even now, compared to diesel cars, CNG saves about 50%+ on running costs per KM for same model cars. The only problem I face is, the CNG variants of vehicles are increasingly towards the likes of cabbies. They are too bare-bones. I wish manufacturers introduce cars with CNG on higher variants or better models. If I had to buy a CNG car today, I would go with the Grand i10 Nios Sportz CNG. It is the only CNG car to offer Apple CarPlay, alloy wheels and Automatic climate control.
Thanks to Schneller once again! Check out BHPian comments for more insights & information.