With the rising count of gas dispensing stations across the country and wider availability of models, Maruti Suzuki India is confident of generating 30 percent of its total passenger vehicle (PV) sales from Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) variants. In order to fulfil its objective of selling six lakh units of cars that are run on clean fuel, the country’s largest carmaker is banking on the CNG-driven variants of new-generation Swift hatchback and Dzire sedan.
“Earlier, there was a problem of number of gas stations. Now there are more than 7,000 gas stations with around 35 city gas distributors across the country. A lot of private players are making indoors into the tier II and III cities now. We have very joined hand with them, and we are promoting it in those markets," Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Partho Banerjee told Moneycontrol.
Banerjee noted that the company is witnessing a huge pull from mileage-conscious buyers across major cities in the country. “Actually, from the customer point of view, the total cost of ownership makes a huge difference. Another important point is this, if you're buying an OE-fitted product backed by huge service network which we have, customer gets the peace of mind, which no other OEM can provide. So all these things are making a difference,” noted Banerjee.
Banerjee revealed that Maruti Suzuki is running two dedicated assembly lines - one each for ICEV and another one for CNG. The company launched the fourth-generation Dzire, which will be available in CNG and petrol options.
“My take is that proportion of CNG in total fleet (sales) is very high. In the personal (mobility) segment in Swift, we are seeing 25 percent (of CNG models). In Dzire also, my take is it should be around 25 to 30 percent. It may go up further because we have improved our supplies too.”
Talking about the new Dzire, Banerjee stated last fiscal, MSI had sold 1.65 lakh units of the outgoing Dzire and 75,000 Dzire units in the current fiscal. "We feel there is a huge play in the sedan segment. As a market leader, we need to be in all the segments and provide all fuel options to the buyers."
When asked about the market situation, Banerjee said rural markets were performing better than the urban centres. On the entry-level hatchback segment, he noted that the company was able to arrest the decline in sales between the first and second quarters of the current fiscal.
"In the month of October, we saw good traction with a growth of around 10 percent in retail sales (in the entry hatch segment)," he said, adding that the recovery in the rural market has played a significant role in the revival of the entry small car segment. In terms of retail sales, Banerjee MSI posted its best-ever performance in October with 2.02 lakh units.
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