Maruti Suzuki to equalise diesel vehicles sales with Petrol+Hybrid this year

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), which had discontinued its diesel cars in December 2019, is now aiming to achieve the similar number of sales through hybrid and CNG vehicles put together, in the current financial year.

The company expects to sell around 4.80 lakh units of vehicles – CNG and strong hybrid vehicles combined – in the current financial year, which was similar to diesel car sales in 2017-18. The company has two strong hybrid vehicles now with the Grand Vitara and the recently launched Invicto utility vehicle, both manufactured at Toyota Kirloskar Motor factory, as part of the Suzuki (Japan) and Toyota (Japan) partnership in 2017.

“The diesel vehicle sales were 4.43 lakh units in 2016-17, which went up to 4.75 lakh units in 2017-18, then it came down to 4.41 lakh units in 2018-19, and then in 2019-20 it further came down to 2.53 lakh units then it is been nil since the last four years as we discontinued the diesel cars in December 2019. So, we expect to cross 4.80 lakh units (hybrid+CNG) this year,” Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, MSIL told businessline.

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Meanwhile, in this last four years, the company has grown sales of its CNG vehicles from 1.06 lakh units in 2019-2020; 1.58 lakh units in 2020-21; 2.34 lakh units in 2021-22 and 3.28 lakh units in 2022-23, and this year, the company has sold 1.07 lakh units in the first quarter, he said.

When asked about bringing back the diesel vehicles, especially with bigger vehicles like the Invicto, Srivastava said, MSIL has “no plan” because there are still some issues being raised about harmful particulates in the diesel engines.

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“That is why diesel percentage of share in the passenger vehicle market has come down to 18 per cent now (total industry sales). At its peak, diesel vehicles used to contribute 58 per cent of the total vehicle sales (in 2012-13). It came down to 53 per cent in 2013-14 then 47.8 per cent in 2014-15 and then 44 per cent in 2015-16. It further came down to 41 per cent in 2016-17; 40 per cent in 2017-18; 36.5 in 2018-19; and 30 per cent in 2019-20,” he noted.

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He said with the introduction of strong hybrid vehicles, it will not make economic sense to buy diesel vehicles because of the gap in the fuel pricing as well as around ₹2 lakh higher priced than the petrol/ hybrid vehicles.

The company has sold 3.05 lakh petrol vehicles and hybrid 3,800 units (only Grand Vitara) in the first quarter this year, he said.

Srivastava said the gap between the strong hybrid passenger vehicles (PVs) are also now getting closer as during the first quarter this financial year (April-June), the hybrid sales were recorded at 16,900 units while the EV sales were at 22,600 units.

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“Globally also, diesel is being phased out from the PV segments. For instance in Europe, Japan (almost nil in PVs), US and in West Asia also, diesel vehicles are getting extinct. And, they will not develop and subsequently develop more EVs, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), etc,” Srivastava added.