Maruti Suzuki aims to sell around six lakh CNG vehicles this fiscal year

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) is aiming to sell four to six lakh CNG units in the current fiscal year depending upon supply situation of essential components, a senior company official told PTI. The company sold about 2.3 lakh CNG units in fiscal year 2021-22. The company currently sells nine of its 15 models with CNG powertrain and is looking to expand its CNG portfolio in the coming days.

The company is hoping that the share of CNG cars in its overall sales will increase over the years as it plans to bring in more models with the alternative fuel technology. "CNG volumes are now about 17 per cent of our overall sales. We have CNG in nine models and in those models their contribution is about 32-33 per cent," he stated," MSI Senior Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava told PTI.

Srivastava noted that Maruti Suzuki has witnessed growth in CNG car sales over the last few years as people have been showing interest for CNG cars because of low running cost and continuous increase in fuel prices. The company sold 74,000 units in 2016-17; around 1 lakh units in 2018-19; 1.05 lakh units in 2019-20; and 1.62 lakh units in 2020-21.

The auto major's S-CNG vehicle range complements the government's vision of reducing oil import and enhancing the share of natural gas in the country's primary energy mix from 6.2 per cent now to 15 per cent by 2030. Contributing to this vision, the government is also looking to rapidly increase the CNG fuel pumps network in the country.

Srivastava further elaborated on the dominance of the automaker in the overall passenger vehicle (PV) segment, saying that eight out of the top ten selling models in the country last fiscal year, belonged to Maruti Suzuki. "In fact, the first five positions were held by our models in the top ten list," he stated.