Maruti Suzuki teases something new for CNG cars. AMT or twin-cylinder incoming?
Maruti Suzuki is the largest player in the CNG passenger vehicle market and the automaker has dropped a new teaser hinting at something new coming in this space. The new teaser does not give away details but it has got the rumour mills churning with speculations of a new technology underway including the option of an automatic transmission or twin-cylinder technology.
Every third car sold in Maruti Suzuki’s lineup is a CNG vehicle. The company dominates the market with its expansive line of CNG-equipped cars but the automaker has witnessed a new rival in recent years in the form of Tata Motors. The company has been quick to increase its portfolio of CNG cars and is all set to expand it further with the Nexon later this year.
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Also Read : Tata Motors CNG sales rise by 120% in FY24, contribute 16% to overall volumes.
Tata Motors' success with CNG cars
Notably, Tata has been rather innovative with its CNG range bringing the technology to higher variants. It also introduced twin-cylinder technology thereby liberating a more usable boot space, while the addition of an automated manual transmission (AMT) brought the convenience of clutchless operation to its cars. It also helps that the CNG integration has been rather seamless with just a badge on the boot letting others know of the CNG nature of the vehicle. While Tata sold about 91,000 CNG cars in FY2024, Maruti's CNG sales exceeded 4.5 lakh units. The latter would like to keep its leadership position intact.
Maruti could replicate twin-cylinder technology or the option of an AMT on its vehicles. It already offers the AMT option on most of its mass-market cars, which also get CNG variants. Furthermore, it could bring more safety systems and newer features to give the automaker an edge over rivals. The teaser does not allude to any one specific model but more CNG cars hinting that the new feature will be shared across models.
New Maruti Suzuki Swift CNG coming soon
Maruti Suzuki’s next big product launch in this space will be the new Swift CNG and the hatchback could likely be the first offering to get the new set of features. The latest-generation Swift is already off to a strong start and the CNG version is expected to boost sales further.
As of May 2024, Maruti Suzuki had over 2.25 lakh bookings, of which about 72,000-75,000 pending orders have been for the CNG cars. The CNG range contributed about 32.5 per cent to Maruti’s overall volumes in FY2024. Meanwhile, CNG cars contribute 36 per cent to the overall passenger vehicle sales in the industry.
Maruti Suzuki CNG Sales
Maruti Suzuki previously said that it aims to sell 6 lakh CNG cars in FY2025, up from 4.5 lakh units sold in FY2024, registering a growth of over 30 per cent year-on-year. With the strong government push for the adoption of CNG as a fuel and growing availability across the country, switching to CNG vehicles is becoming a viable option outside of the major metro where availability has been scarce. The new tech/features from Maruti are likely to push demand further.
