Smaller Diesel Cars To Go Out Of Production By 2020: Maruti Chairman

Foreseeing the consequences of the stricter BSVI emission norms that will be enforced in the country from the year 2020, chairman of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), RC Bhargava, has advocated that smaller diesel cars will go out of production in the near future. 

“After 2020, the price of diesel cars will rise further, and the smaller diesel cars actually will go out of production because a diesel car that costs Rs 5 lakh now, will cost a lakh more after Euro VI norms come into play. The equivalent petrol cars will still be about Rs 4 lakh. So, people will not buy diesel,” he said in an interview to ET Auto.

This assessment seems to have come in after manufacturers were asked to adhere to BSVI emission norms that will require expensive modifications to be made to diesel car technology. In turn, this will cause the prices of these cars to go north by around Rs 1-2 lakh.

On the other hand, petrol powertrains would demand minimal adjustments that will not affect the retail price of cars that run on gasoline. Thus, a wide gulf is expected to be created between petrol and diesel cars in the coming years, throwing the future of the latter into uncertainty, especially in the smaller segments.

The solution to this problem presents itself in the form of hybrid technology, which the country’s largest carmaker is also pursuing proactively. “Suzuki is working very hard to bring down the cost of hybrids. We already have a low-cost mild hybrid which has to be scaled up in terms of getting enhanced fuel economy,” he said.

“Once we get better technology, low-cost hybrid technology will help in increasing the mileage of a petrol or a diesel car by 30-35%. Once that is achieved, then hybrids would become 40-50% of the market,” he went on to add.