Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has raised its green vehicle sales target to 1 million units for the current financial year, up from the earlier projection of 800,000-900,000 units. According to reports from Business Standard, the car market leader is banking on structural tailwinds including rising crude prices and the introduction of automatic transmission in CNG variants. The company currently holds a dominant 70% market share in the CNG segment and is selling close to 80,000 CNG vehicles monthly. Senior Executive Officer Partho Banerjee noted that CNG models previously lost out to petrol/automatic combinations due to lack of automatic transmission options, with the new launches specifically targeting new-age customers who want CNG's running-cost benefits but refuse to compromise on automatic convenience.
Under its Auto Green Mission, MSIL launched automatic S-CNG variants of popular models including Swift, Dzire, and Baleno on Friday. As reported by Business Standard, Banerjee noted that CNG models previously lost out to petrol/automatic combinations because they lacked automatic transmission options. The new launches specifically target new-age customers who want CNG's running-cost benefits but refuse to compromise on automatic convenience, opening CNG to previously unaddressed segments. "This opens CNG to a segment that was previously unaddressed," Banerjee said in a media roundtable, emphasizing that the new models target buyers who wanted CNG's running-cost benefit but would not give up automatic convenience.
According to Business Standard, the new models are priced competitively with the Dzire automatic S-CNG at ₹8.53 lakh, Swift automatic S-CNG at ₹7.92 lakh, and Baleno automatic S-CNG at ₹8.32 lakh (ex-showroom). MSIL claims its Dzire automatic S-CNG delivers 36.47 km/kg fuel efficiency, making it India's most fuel-efficient sedan. Within its own portfolio, CNG penetration currently stands at around 43%, providing a strong base for expansion rather than building demand from scratch.
As reported by Business Standard, Banerjee identified supply-side constraints as the primary limitation to higher CNG volumes rather than customer demand. The company currently has 18,000 units per month production capacity for CNG vehicles, which is being allocated based on waiting periods. "I have gotten now a capacity restriction on the total CNG vehicles... I am playing with the CNG vehicles by allocating it based on my waiting periods," Banerjee said, adding that as production capacity is ramped up, the company expects to unlock higher volumes. Banerjee expressed hope that increased CNG supplies could push CNG penetration to 50% of the green portfolio within the current fiscal year, though this depends on supply availability.
