Maruti Suzuki will stay away from producing diesel vehicles due to stricter emission standards
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has ruled out a return to the diesel segment as it believes sales of such vehicles will continue to decline at the start of the next phase of emissions norms in 2023. , according to a senior company official.
The country’s largest carmaker believes the next phase of emissions norms will drive up the cost of diesel vehicles, which in turn will affect their sales in the market even more. which in the past few years has gradually shifted towards gasoline cars.
“We’re not going into the diesel engine business. We’ve said before that we’ll study it, and if there’s a demand from the customer, we can come back. But in the future, We will not enter the diesel engine sector,” said MSI technical officer CV Raman.
He cites the upcoming stricter emissions norms as the main reason to avoid diesel cars.
“In 2023, the new phase of emissions norms will come, which is likely to drive up costs. So we believe the diesel percentage could fall further. We don’t know. about the competition but with MSI we have no intention of entering the diesel space,” noted Mr Raman.
According to industry estimates, the diesel vehicle market share is currently less than 17% of total passenger vehicle (PV) sales. This is a sharp decrease compared to the period 2013-14 when diesel cars used to account for 60% of total sales.
Many domestic car manufacturers already use diesel engines in their portfolios with the introduction of the BS-VI emission regime from April 1, 2020.
MSI discontinued diesel models from its portfolio as it began to adopt more stringent BS-VI emissions standards.
The company’s entire vehicle lineup is currently powered by BS-VI compliant 1-litre, 1.2-litre and 1.5-litre petrol engines. It also offers CNG trim on seven of its models.
Raman said the company will focus on improving existing petrol powertrains in terms of fuel efficiency and, in the near future, may also consider a new line of engines to power the product portfolio. mine.
“We said we would improve our existing powertrain. The new K10-C engine on the Celerio is an improvement. Similarly, the 1.2-liter engine has undergone a number of changes. So from a fuel efficiency perspective, we will improve the internal combustion engine technology,” he said.
According to the company, the recently introduced all-new version of the Celerio delivers a fuel efficiency of 26.68 km/litre, which is the highest for any petrol car in India.
Raman said the company will also enhance the electrification aspects of its cars such as start-stop technology.
“We already have mild hybrid technology at the higher end. Besides, we are promoting more CNG because of low operating costs. Seven out of 15 models are already equipped with CNG. In the future, more brands will use this technology.” he added.
Mr. Raman noted that there will be a lot of hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) technologies going ahead, so there will be a lot of change from the powertrain’s point of view.
