Maruti Suzuki is betting big on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cars and has been steadily increasing its portfolio to add more CNG models. The company expects more CNG fuel pumps to open in the country to address the demand. Speaking to carandbike on the sidelines of the new Baleno CNG and XL6 CNG launch, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director - Maruti Suzuki India, said that the government aims to have over 12,000 CNG pumps by 2029 across India.
Also Read: Maruti Suzuki Baleno S-CNG Launched In India
The Maruti Suzuki Baleno S-CNG comes with a 1.2L Dualjet petrol engine coupled to a factory-fitted CNG kit
While CNG vehicles have been around for over two decades, the availability of fuel has been limited. Nevertheless, Srivastava expects to see rapid growth over the next few years as petrol and diesel prices have seen an exponential surge. Between 2018 and 2022, CNG pumps increased from 1,400 to 4,700 across 300 cities. This number is expected to grow to 8,750 pumps by FY2024-25 covering 333 cities. It will expand to over 10,000 outlets by 2026 and about 12,410 pumps by 2029. Srivastava believes that this should suffice the demand for CNG across the country.
As of January 2022, there are about 81,099 retail fuel pumps across India as per the data shared by the Union government. A highly small percentage of the same retail CNG. Back in 2014, the total number of CNG pumps was just 900. Earlier this year, Oil minister Hardeep Puri said that the government plans to set up 3,500 CNG stations in the next two years taking the total count to about 8,000.
Also Read: Maruti Suzuki XL6 CNG Launched In India
Both the Baleno and XL6 CNG come in premium variants with all the bells and whistles
Maruti is confident of CNG cars gaining popularity despite the rapid escalation of CNG prices over the past few months. The automaker largely sold CNG cars to fleet buyers but it is betting big on the private customer base to look at it as a more pocket-friendly option. The company recently introduced the more premium CNG variants of the Dzire and Ertiga, while the new-gen Baleno and XL6 come with a fair bit of kit in a bid to entice private buyers.
Srivastava says that the cost of running a CNG version is still considerably lower than petrol, which tips the odds in its favour. The Maruti boss explained that the CNG running cost for a WagonR is about Rs. 2.5 per km as opposed to Rs. 5 per km for the petrol version.
Also Read: Maruti Suzuki Aims To Sell 4 Lakh CNG Cars This Fiscal: Shashank Srivastava
Maruti Suzuki produced about 2.30 lakh CNG cars last year with the WagonR being its bestseller, followed by the Ertiga and Eeco models. The company is averaging about 30,000 CNG cars per month in terms of sales and has a strong order book with a backlog of over 1.23 lakh bookings. The automaker is working towards improving production as supply-chain issues resolve.
