In the upcoming year 2020, there may be a huge price gap between petrol and diesel cars which will be due to the high cost for updating the diesel cars to meet BS-VI norms making it more expensive. After the updation of diesel cars to BS-VI norms, the price gap between diesel and petrol cars will rise by Rs 1.5 lakh which at present is more than Rs 1 lakh and the total difference will come up to Rs 2.5 lakh as per the CV Raman, senior executive director (engineering), Maruti Suzuki.
He said “The cost equation is definitely going to change. Diesel is going to be at least Rs 2-2.5 lakh higher than BS-VI petrol. Moreover, the sentiment is not very good on diesel. Now whether the customer will make that switchover is uncertain,” he said.
Raman added “We are doing Euro-V and Euro-VI (BS-V and -VI) all together, so we need to put a DPF (diesel particulate filter) as well as SCR (selective catalytic reduction) and LNT (Lean NOx trap). So you have to control PM and NoX both at the same time. Normally we\'d go from one stage to another but in a step by step manner but here, the entire cost will happen at the same time”.
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By introducing SHVS (smart hybrid vehicle system), the Maruti want to upgrade its internal combustion powertrains by hybridising the vehicles and also want to consider stronger hybrids. The Maruti will work with the Bosch for its electrification strategy and will request Bosch to manufacture more products in India only. Bosch has many years of experience in India, so it can be trusted for manufacturing products as per the requirements in India only.
The fuel efficiency for a diesel engine car is about 25 per cent and for a hybrid, it is about 30 percent. So we can say that hybrid is a better option than the diesel for fuel efficiency and even for CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) norms but the high costs of hybrids is difficult for Maruti to manage.
Raman said “Obviously, hybrid is going to cost money because you’ve got to put in a motor, electronics and a strong hybrid means the battery pack will have to be bigger. So there\'s a high cost involved, but we are trying to manage it” also adding that the petrol-hybrid will cost much more than the BS-VI-compliant diesel.
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To update the diesel powertrain to meet the norms of BS-VI will cost high to the Maruti and will affect its powertrain strategy for its models which means that there are possibilities that Maruti might choose CNG for smaller cars.
As there is a huge demand for CNG and it can be said because CNG models have grown to more than 50% in the past few months so CNG is a better option.