Maruti Suzuki India will shortly launch a CNG variant of its popular selling premium hatchback Baleno, which is retailed through the Nexa chain of dealerships. Apart from enhancing the offerings of Nexa showrooms, which currently do not retail any CNG variants, this would give consumers the option to lower their running costs. CNG, as a fuel, is cheaper than petrol and diesel. However, in terms of the ex-showroom price, CNG cars are costlier than petrol and nearly at par with diesel vehicles.
“We are thinking of introducing a CNG variant of Baleno. The exact timing of the launch is being evaluated,” Shashank Srivastava, senior ED, marketing and sales, told FE. Srivastava said Maruti’s original strategy did not envisage CNG variants being retailed at Nexa showrooms but consumer feedback had prompted a change.
Although the product line-up is yet to be finalised, Maruti is also planning to bring in CNG variants for some other models that are retailed through Nexa.
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“Consumers find CNG a good option because the cost of running a vehicle on it is roughly a third of petrol and diesel vehicles,” Srivastava observed.
Maruti retails its cars through two dealer chains Nexa and Arena. Apart from Baleno, the other models which are retailed through Nexa are Ignis, Ciaz, XL6 and S-Cross. None of these vehicles have a CNG variant. However, models like Alto, WagonR, Celerio, Dzire and Ertiga, which are retailed through Arena, offer CNG variants.
CNG vehicles contribute 8% to the overall passenger vehicle sales in terms of volume. For Maruti, they account for 15% of the total sales.
The company sold around 106,000 units of CNG cars in FY20. The sales increased 54% to 163,000 units in FY21. In the current fiscal, the company is targeting sales of 240,000 units, and has sold 150,000 units by the end of December quarter.
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Maruti Suzuki has been an early mover in the CNG space – it entered the space way back in 2010. Currently, Hyundai Motor India sells four CNG models – Santro, Grand i10 NIOS, Xcent and Aura. On its part, Tata Motors sells models like Tiago iCNG and Tigor iCNG and plans to launch more models.
According to auto analysts, the surge in demand for CNG vehicles can be attributed to two factors, rising prices of petrol and diesel, and a steady increase in the number of CNG outlets. There are about 3,100 CNG outlets in 250-odd cities right now, up from 2,207 at the beginning of FY21.
