Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker, sees an opportunity for CNG-powered vehicles, and it plans to widen its CNG portfolio by producing half a million vehicles in the upcoming financial year as the increase in petrol and diesel prices has accelerated the demand for CNG variants.
Worth mentioning here is the carmaker leads the CNG space in the domestic market with more than 85 per cent market share in the segment. In FY 23, Maruti is poised to manufacture 600,000 CNG-powered vehicles—more than half of a million CNG cars it has sold in the domestic market cumulatively in the last two decades.
On Tuesday, the auto major added another feather to its cap by registering cumulative sales of 1 million CNG vehicles.
It is important to shift to cleaner energy sources to cut carbon emissions till electric vehicles (EVs) become mainstream, ET cited Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava as saying.
“CNG emits 20 per cent less Co2 than petrol. In fact, bio CNG is carbon negative. Lower prices (of CNG) make it a very good option, especially for small car buyers,” he told the financial daily, mentioning that more attempts should be made to produce bio CNG in India.
Maruti Suzuki expects CNG sales to grow about 50 per cent to 235,000-240,000 units in the current financial year. The carmaker has pending orders for an additional 115,000 units.
