With petrol prices already swelling up, automakers as well as vehicle owners are switching to other alternatives. These include CNG, LPG and the most important one Diesel. Diesel vehicle in spite of their high price, offer great mileage and deliver economical running cost. If driven on a regular basis they even incur less maintenance and eventually are good at the pocket.
Now with the realization amongst carmakers about the change in taste of buyers from petrol to diesel, they have become more sincere and intend to roll out diesel versions of all the current models and upcoming ones as well.
Whether it is an existing major with strong diesel portfolio like Maruti Suzuki and Tata or emerging majors like General Motors, Chevrolet , Honda etc, all are gearing up to introduce new models with diesel hearts.While Maruti and Tata have a few diesel models already on the roads and are planning to launch more, brands like Honda are going to make their debut in this very segment.
A recent Care Research report said “During last 6 months, there have been 6 occasions of revision in petrol prices, which has led to around 16% rise in petrol prices during this period. Hence, the worries for petrol vehicle owner have intensified. Whereas, there has been just a 4.5% rise in diesel prices during the same period as the diesel prices have not yet been deregulated by the government,”
As per Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager – marketing, Maruti Suzuki, “A decade ago, the price differential between petrol and diesel was 60% and since June 2010, the gap increased to 80%. Petrol prices have risen substantially over the last one year and the price gap is ¤19. The operating cost of diesel cars is also lesser than the petrol cars. Since June last year the percentage of diesel cars has gone up”
Evidently the diesel segment is showing immense growth with 90% of total share of recent sales, which clearly tells how people are switching to diesel powered vehicle and if the pace is maintained, then by 2013 diesel cars will account for more than 1/3rd of the total vehicle count in the country.
[Image Credit-treehugger]
[Source Credit-DNAindia]
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