Petrol and diesel prices are continuously increasing almost every day. In several parts of India, prices of petrol have gone past Rs 100/liter. Check out the impact on your pocket.
In Mumbai petrol prices reached a new high of Rs 104.90. This means driving a petrol vehicle/SUV now costs Mumbaikars more than Rs 6.5 per kilometre, 550 per cent more than driving an electric car and 160 per cent more than driving a CNG version, according to industry sources. This also means that now you have to shell out around Rs 1,000 more for a tank full.
Diesel car travel in the city has also become more expensive — it costs Rs 5 per kilometre — as the price of fuel has risen to Rs 96.72. CNG cars cost Rs 2.5 per km to drive, whereas electric cars cost Rs 1.
The difference between CNG and diesel cars has also minimised with more people choosing CNG cars, a car dealer stated. Maharashtra sold 10,363 CNG cars in 2020-21, compared to 11,785 diesel vehicles.
Similar circumstances around the country have led prominent carmakers such as Maruti and Hyundai to focus their efforts this fiscal year on bringing out a significant number of CNG cars. Meanwhile, the government wants to see additional growth in electric car sales after a 115 per cent increase in 2020-21 and is working on a new Electric Vehicle Policy.
While CNG costs Rs 49.4 per kilogram in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the government subsidizes the cost of electric charging stations to about Rs 6 per unit.
Between January and March of this year, 885 electric vehicles registered. In April-May, sales decreased due to Corona's second wave, but registrations increased since June's first week, with a total of 124 e-vehicles registered in Mumbai and 876 registered in the state this month, an RTO official said.
