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2019 was a historic year of sorts for the automotive industry in India. It not only saw one of the worst YoY declines; but the shift towards Petrol models deepened too. There have been 2 primary reasons for the shift towards petrol vehicles –
The price gap between Petrol & Diesel fuel price gap is just Rs.7.71/l as of today (considering Petrol price of Rs.70.04/l and Diesel price of Rs.62.33/l – Delhi)
BS-6 transition has made a lot of OEMs (say Maruti, Renault, etc) to move to Petrol only models as they do not have the infrastructure/technology/investment readiness to manufacture diesel engines.
Near to 67% of the cars sold in 2019 had a petrol heart (engine). The dominance of the Petrol Models is bound to go to the next level in 2020 as the entire portfolio of country’s biggest automaker (Maruti Suzuki) shall have petrol-only models. However; companies like Hyundai, Ford, Kia, MG, etc are going aggressive on diesel models to gain from the situation. Will Maruti’s decision to exit diesel models be a wise one? We’ll have to wait and watch for that.
Maruti sold over 3.3 Lakh diesel vehicles in 2019 and the diesel models contributed over 22% of Maruti Suzuki’s volumes in the previous calendar year! Nation’s Biggest Car maker also did not have a presence in the EV domain – However; news are floating around that Maruti is readying Wagon-R EV for launch in 2020 at a competitive price point.
EV’s contributed to only 0.1% of the overall passenger vehicle sales in India. Going by the trend, there is a long way to go before Electric Vehicles catches up the fossil fuel counterparts. Lost cost EV and Electric Infrastructure are the need of the hour and shall be strongly backed by the government as well.
Hyundai managed to sneak in 27.3% sales from Diesel models and is expecting to increase the share in 2020 as Maruti is out of the race. Also the futuristic Kona was able to contribute only 0.1% of Hyundai’s sales in 2019.
Mahindra emerged to be the biggest EV manufacturer of 2019! Majority of the volumes was pushed by e-Verito and the EVs contributed to 0.4% of Mahindra’s volumes. Mahindra always had the first-mover advantage in the EV space post acquisition of Reva. However; the volumes are still not considerable and should go even higher.
Kia was the first OEM to bring in BS6 diesel in the Indian sub-continent and it reaped the benefits of its early entry into the space. Over 45% of Seltos’s sold in 2019 borne a diesel heart.
Dependency on petrol-powered models was extremely high for Renault, Honda & Maruti. Also Mahindra, Toyota & Skoda were highly dependent on Diesel-powered models.
Rank of OEMs wrt Petrol Models contribution –
Rank of OEMs wrt Diesel Models contribution –