Saturday, January 07, 2012
By Pranjal Gera
Diesel cars in great demand, still car makers are in a fix
India seems to be going the diesel driven cars way. Where diesel cars had a sudden spur in demand in mid-2011, the demand still on the rise even when there is months of waiting. This has put car companies in India in a dilemma and it would not be an exaggeration to say if companies have started thinking twice before pitching in any new petrol car. The not-so unexpected rise is due to the gulf between petrol and diesel prices besides the per kilometer running costs.
After the rising demand for diesel cars in India, every carmaker was in a hurry to launch its diesel car. Chevrolet hurriedly came up with Chevrolet Beat Diesel and Toyota also came up with the diesel version of its Toyota Etios and Toyota Etios Liva. Other carmakers followed suit and it was like greater emphasis to diesel cars than to petrol cars. Maruti too has witnesses a sharp decline in the sale of petrol cars in India.
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However, the rising demand and showering customers still could not explain car makers to invest more in diesel cars in India. Reason: uncertain government policy of the government which may anytime narrow the gap in petrol and diesel prices by raising the price of diesel for personal cars thus again distributing the sales numbers to petrol and diesel cars.
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The reason why diesel is sold at a subsidized rate is that it is widely used in the agriculture industry. Besides, gradually petrol prices have risen higher than diesel and thus presently petrol costs 56 percent more than diesel. Still lack of clear outlook by the government has left carmakers in a fix and they are now unwilling to invest more in diesel cars in India.
Despite of all this, diesel still is tagged as cheaper than petrol however, car experts believe that people who have more than 80 km per day run should go for a diesel car else they should stick to a petrol car.
