Mubasher: Increasing compressed natural gas (CNG) car sales in India indicates a growing alternative fuel vehicle market, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, Bakar Sadik Agwan, said.
It marks a positive development towards achieving clean mobility in India, he added.
This statement followed the news that Maruti Suzuki India Limited sold more than 157,000 factory-fitted CNG vehicles in fiscal year (FY) 2020/2021.
“It also marks the success of Maruti’s strategic shift to discontinue diesel and focus on CNG vehicles. Maruti presently is the only OEM with wide factory fitted CNG model line-up in the country,” according to the analyst.
“Soaring fuel prices act as a key demand booster for CNG cars with high uptake particularly in commercial and city commuting applications,” he said.
Agwan expected this trend to continue in the near-term.
Currently, the market is only limited to major cities while there is a lack of proper charging stations network in small suburbs and rural areas of India, the analyst said.