Latest Car News in India

Diesel cars in India sales slowdown as petrol diesel price gap narrows

The day is not far when there will be no waiting on the Maruti Ertiga diesel, Maruti Swift Diesel or the Maruti Swift Dzire Diesel or any other diesel car in the country. The reason behind this highly optimistic assumption is the latest trend that has set in the country. It is striking but the craze for diesel cars seems to have lost its vigor. As per the reports most of the diesel cars which had 2-3 months waiting period at least have no waiting period. Instead car makers have started to dole out offers and discounts on diesel cars in India.
 

It is noteworthy that for the past one and a half year, there has been an increase in demand for diesel cars and this demand was so high that at a point of time, some of the companies had to stop production of the petrol models so that they do not accumulate stocks. At a point of time, Maruti also stopped production of its most popular mode Maruti Alto K10 as there was slowdown in demand for petrol cars. The reason why petrol cars were not in demand was the sudden rise in price of petrol and then the popular belief that petrol prices will be reaching Rs 100 per litre soon had a deep impact on the psyche of the car buyer. The slowdown in demand for petrol cars triggered sales of diesel cars and people were on the look out of high mileage cars. Renault Duster, Maruti Ertiga diesel models had unexpected success following the demand for diesel cars.
 

Though gauging the rise or fall in demand of diesel cars from the trends in December will be unjust as this month has always been one of the darkest period in car sales. Experts believe that the disruption of the ratio between diesel and petrol cars is due to the narrowing difference in the price of diesel and petrol. As far as the Chevrolet Beat is concerned it enjoyed a 85:15 sales ratio between the diesel and petrol variants but recently the ratio has come to 80:20.