It’s official and is taking over the news. Maruti Suzuki will stop production of all diesel variants in its catalogue by April 1st, 2020. All cars under the brand will only be available in either petrol or CNG version.
This leaves the buyers with just less than a year to buy their favourite Vitara Brezza and the S-Cross with 1.3-litre diesel engine. Other models like Swift, Baleno, DZire, Ertiga and Ciaz are also on the list of losing their diesel counterparts.
This decision comes after the mandate compliance of BS-VI emission norms in Indian vehicles. The government had recently announced that the engines of all vehicles sold in India from April 2020 must adhere to the BS-VI emission standards.
The manufacturers have been quoted saying that this engine upgradation will cost about 2 lakh rupees per unit, which will further take the price of the car to a new high. Simple economics dictates that this will lead to a decline in demand for diesel variants in the market.
Even today, just 23% of the vehicles on road run on diesel. And this number is bound to go down if there is a further hike in the price of diesel vehicles. It is therefore understood why these car companies are eager to cease production.
Surely we will miss some of the very smooth and memorable experiences we had with our favourite Maruti Suzuki car. This comes as a sad news for many Indian car lovers.
