With petrol cars finding favour with buyers again compared to diesel-powered ones, manufacturers are looking at altering production plans to roll out more petrol cars.
The higher overall cost of ownership for diesel vehicles along with the narrowing down of price gap between the two fuels is driving the demand for petrol-powered vehicles.
Maruti Suzuki Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) R. S. Kalsi said, “Last year, 58 per cent of the demand for the auto industry was from diesel cars. In the first quarter, it declined to 53 per cent and is now going lower than 50 per cent. We expect it may settle at 40 per cent diesel and 60 per cent petrol in 2015.” He also admitted that that with the changing demand pattern manufacturers are changing production plans in favour of petrol cars.
Amit Kaushik, Principal Analyst (Automobile) at consultancy firm IHS Automotive, agrees, “Production will need to be aligned to the demand. A lot of players are already changing their powertrain strategy.”
For Maruti, Mr. Kalsi said diesel share was around 38 per cent last year which came down to 33 per cent. “We expect it to stabilise around 30 per cent for diesel and 70 per cent for petrol. ,” he said.
Likewise, Hyundai Motor India Sr. Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said, “There is a pronounced shift towards petrol cars. We are well geared up for that as we have a hybrid plant where petrol as well as diesel vehicle can be produced.”
Hyundai expects the demand for their vehicle to remain stable at present ratio of 73 per cent petrol and 27 per cent diesel.
For Honda Cars the sales of diesel variants of Amaze have dropped to a little below 50 per cent from 80 per cent in April 2013.
Similarly, in case of its premium sedan City, 60 per cent of the demand is coming for petrol variants.
Meanwhile, Rajeev Singh, Partner, KPMG said while diesel engines will not completely go away, he does not see a below 2000 cc diesel engine as viable.
