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Maruti to focus on diesel cars, Maruti petrol car sales severely hit

If you happen to witness an awkwardly sounding Maruti Alto or Maruti Wagon R in the coming months, or you happen to see a DDiS badge on these cars soon, it should not be a matter of surprise as Maruti will soon be transforming its fleet into diesel, it seems. For this Maruti has merged a diesel engine manufacturing company with itself and has said that now onwards it will be focusing on diesel cars. Notably, since Maruti has a lot of petrol cars in its fleet, it had faced severe loss due to the incessant increase in petrol prices. The recent price rise has also dampened Maruti car sales in India.

Now that the car maker has merged a diesel engine manufacturing company with itself, a further boost in production of diesel cars is in the offing and Maruti will be increasing the capacity to 6 lakh cars by mid of next year. This will be double the capacity from existing 3 lakh diesel cars units. Maruti has merged merger of Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd. (SPIL) with itself and this is expected to bring down the cost of production as well. This could help Maruti offer the new diesel cars at an attractive price.

Currently Maruti diesel models are available from Maruti Swift onwards and with the focus on diesel cars, one can expect that the production of small diesel cars will be in the target of the company as small diesel cars will win the race even if the government puts special tax on diesel cars. Besides, cutting the petrol car production seems to be on the agenda of Maruti as with the rise in petrol prices, Maruti is able to utilize only 70 percent of the total petrol car production. With this merger, it is also expected that Maruti will strengthen its position as the largest car maker in India.