NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal’s crackdown on diesel vehicles aged 10 years or more, may directly hit the only growing segment in passenger vehicles— utility vehicles.
On Monday, the NGT ordered the Delhi government to de- register all 10- year-old diesel vehicles. This was over and above a court ordered ban on registration of diesel vehicles of engine capacity over 2,000 cc, and one in place on diesel commercial vehicles.
In the April-June quarter, utility-vehicles grew 38%, while the sales of cars declined by 1.5%, over the year-ago period. UVs now make up over 27% of all passenger vehicles. The fineprint is even more significant: 75-80% of all UVs have diesel engines.
Car buyers continue to love them for a plethora of reasons: higher seating position, more space, better performance, greater power, imposing road presence. Only in diesel can a vehicle return both higher power and better mileage. “As UVs are heavier, they need engines with higher torque characteristic to feel the power,” said NRaja, head, marketing and sales, at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, whose mainstays Innova and Fortuner are diesel SUVs.
Also, the newer diesel cars are better in technology and the gear doesn’t need to be shifted down every time the speed is reduced, which was the case in earlier diesel cars.
The rise of compact SUVs such as Maruti Brezza and Hyundai Cr eta have opened up the market. “The new UV shave characteristic sofa car, and also good mileage – which make them better (than sedans) albeit at as lightly higher price,” said London-based Deepesh Rathore, co-founder of Emerging Markets automotive advisors.
{{/usCountry}}The rise of compact SUVs such as Maruti Brezza and Hyundai Cr eta have opened up the market. “The new UV shave characteristic sofa car, and also good mileage – which make them better (than sedans) albeit at as lightly higher price,” said London-based Deepesh Rathore, co-founder of Emerging Markets automotive advisors.
{{/usCountry}}However, as demand for UVs continues to rise, companies are looking at petrol variants, though this may compromise performance .“We have launched a 2- lit re petrol engine in the XUV 500,” said Pawan Goenka, executive director of Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s largest utility vehicle maker. “We are looking at a 1.5-litre petrol engine for the smaller SUVs.”
Maruti Suzuki too is planning to equip the Brezza with a petrol engine, but doesn’t have anything more than a 1.2- lit re variant in hand, which will bring down the UV’s performance.
The new ban will also bring down the life-cycle of a new diesel vehicle to 10 years in the Capital. “A large set of customers who are worried about resale, will buy petrol UVs,” said Abdul Majeed, partner at PWC.
Rakesh Srivastava, head of sales and marketing at Hyundai India says the change has already begun. “We have seen a rising demand in petrol version of the Creta, but the ban of diesel vehicles over 2000 cc has affected sales of UVs, creating uncertainty that has lead to shift demand in favour of petrol,” he said.