India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki created ripples last year after they announced the discontinuation of diesel engines in the Indian market post the implementation of BS6 emission norms. Since then, Maruti Suzuki has not lost the market share and it remains on the top of the charts by a big margin. However, we recently showed you a video where a diesel engine-powered Ertiga TourM was seen testing on both city roads and open highway stretches. It got us thinking if Maruti Suzuki should bring back the diesel engines and will a BS6 1.5 DDiS Diesel make practical sense to the manufacturer? Here are our thoughts and do let us know in the comments what you think too.
Which Maruti Suzuki models need diesel-power?
Maruti Suzuki India offers a wide range of affordable products for mass-segment buyers. While cars like Alto, Ignis, Celerio and Swift seldom go on long-distance highway binge, the other cars like Ciaz, Baleno, Ertiga, XL6 and S-Cross are made for highway cruising. These cars for long-distance should definitely offer diesel variants in the market. There are many buyers who buy vehicles for daily as well as highway use and most of them prefer diesel vehicles.
Buyers do miss a BS6 1.5 DDiS diesel engine in the family cars like Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, XL6 and Ciaz. Customers using these vehicles inside the city limits will not complain much about missing diesel engine though.
Strong demand for diesel engines
There is almost no difference in the price of petrol and diesel fuels now. However, there are still many states that record strong demand for diesel cars. While places like Delhi-NCR, where diesel cars older than 10 years are banned, there is no such restrictions in any other state or UT in India. This ensures there is still a demand for diesel cars from various places in India.
Sales data show there 17% of cars sold after BS6 implementation are diesel vehicles. Even though it is a small number, most taxi fleet owners prefer diesel vehicles for its long engine life. Manufacturers like Ford, Jeep, Mahindra and Toyota sell more diesel cars than petrol cars. These are enough indicators of demand for diesel cars.
CNG is not diesel
Yes, Maruti Suzuki has added a lot of CNG powered cars to replace the diesel variants. However, CNG cannot replace diesel engines. Yes, CNG cars are extremely fuel-efficient but there are a few restrictions.
CNG cars cannot ever return the kind of range one full tank as any of the diesel cars in the market. It means that the car has to stop often to refill CNG. The time to fill CNG is generally much higher than filling diesel as it is a longer process. CNG filling stations are minuscule compared to the diesel fuel stations in India. Also, CNG is yet to reach many cities and towns across the country. Further, the inclusion of CNG always lowers the power and torque figure of a petrol engine and the tank itself eats away into the boot space.
Competition offers it
Maruti's biggest rival - Hyundai still offers diesel options in India. Starting with Venue, all the Hyundai cars including Creta, Verna, Tucson and soon-to-be-launch i20 offer diesel engine options. New manufacturers like MG Motor India and Kia also rely on diesel variants too. As mentioned above, a few manufacturers also sell more diesel cars than petrol cars.
Without Maruti Suzuki throwing any competition in the diesel segment, it is up for grabs. Even though the popularity of the diesel engine is not as much now, it is likely to spring back in the future. With these aspects, Maruti Suzuki should definitely look to launch diesel cars in India in future and they could definitely start with the BS6 1.5 DDiS Diesel engine.
