Compact SUVs are quite popular in India currently and most of them are offered with petrol and a diesel engine as well, but which one is better selling?
Rising fuel prices have put buyers in a tricky position, with more and more people shifting towards diesel because it is cheaper and more fuel efficient. However, that’s not the case with all the segments.
Compact SUVs are very popular in India right now. They offer the SUV feeling, are spacious than most of the hatchbacks are priced very competitively against C-Segment sedans and hatchbacks.
Most of the auto manufacturers have their compact SUVs like Maruti, Tata, Hyundai, Ford. Mahindra and Honda. Except TUV300 and Brezza, all have diesel and petrol engines on offer.
Also Read: Tata Nexon AMT Review- Petrol And Diesel AMT Test Drive Report
Talking about the Petrol and diesel variants of the compact SUVs, everyone have their diesel variants selling more than petrol. This is the only segment under 10 Lakhs, which has this variation.
Maruti Vitara Brezza and Mahindra TUV300 come with diesel engines only. Leaving the competition to Nexon, EcoSport, WRV and XUV300, all their diesel variants are better selling.
51% of Tata Nexon sold in India in FY 2018-19 were diesel variants. For the EcoSport, it was 65%, 55% for the WRV and 71% for the XUV300. For EcoSport and XUV300, the difference is huge.
Also Read: Maruti Vitara Brezza Review – Blissfully Practical
Out of total 3.17 Lakh compact SUVs sold in India for that year, 60,518 petrol variants were sold and 2.56 Lakh units of diesel variants were sold. So, petrol is 19% and diesel is 81%!
The downside to this is that Mahindra XUV300 needs to work hard on its petrol variants. Upcoming BS-6 norms will increase prices of both the engines, but the diesel ones can go up to a Lakh. With this, the demand for diesel engines could go down by a minor extent.
Diesel variants are mainly popular in this segment because they are fuel efficient and not much costlier than their petrol counterparts. For example, Brezza gives an ARAI fuel economy of 24.3 kmpl, which is higher than that of Petrol WagonR or Santro.
Also Read: New 2017 Ford EcoSport Review- It Just Got Better!
The diesel prices are running lower than Petrol, by nearly Rs 7-8. Lastly, unlike the earlier times, diesel cars now require lesser maintenance and are long lasting as well. Some years back, many people believed that diesel cars cannot run more than 5-6 years, that’s why these chose petrol. Now, the scenario has changed.
