Wednesday, December 07, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Diesel cars become need of the hour with skyrocketing petrol prices
With the price gap between the petrol and diesel cars has widened substantially, the set of buyers who prefer to buy diesel run cars is growing rapidly. The diesel run cars are now offering a considerably low daily fuel expenses, thus buyers are willing to pay Rs 50,000 to 1,00,000 more for a costlier diesel version as compared to a petrol version.
Earlier, it was recommended by the auto experts that only those buyers whom monthly running is over 1,000 km, should go for a diesel run car; and those who drive their car for less than 33km per day, should invest in a petrol version to get full value for their money. But now the scenario has been started changing rapidly, with more and more buyers opting for diesel version of cars, even if their daily running is less than 30 km. Reason being the low operating cost.
If we take a look at the auto industry stats in the period of January to October 2011, the market share for petrol run cars has gone down by14 percent. On the other hand, the sales of diesel run cars have surged 22 percent in the same period. Diesel variants are now accounting up to 80 percent sales of the cars which are available in both petrol and diesel versions.
The skyrocketing demand for diesel run cars has changed the market scenario completely. While the diesel versions of the cars are enjoying long waiting periods, the petrol versions are now available off the shelf. For instance, the Maruti Swift diesel now has a waiting period of up to 10 months, much longer as compare to petrol version which is available with a waiting period of just 1 to 3 months. The scenario is somewhat similar for the cars like Chevrolet Beat, Ford Figo and Hyundai Verna.
