The largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki has said with the gap between diesel and petrol prices narrowing with the rise in diesel price, it expects diesel car sales to nearly match with those of petrol models.
"We had always expected this to happen, because the diesel option constituted almost 70 per cent of the car which had diesel, this was driven by artificial pricing. Since the pricing gap is coming down, we will expect diesel cars to come back to 40-50 per cent. I think we are getting there," Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said last evening. Stating that the current market condition is very depressed with decreasing sales, Bhargva said diesel cars which were driving sales last year, have come down or it has remained flat. "It is not only for us but even for players with strong diesel portfolio. Diesel cars have lost their attractiveness in the market. It will take time for the economy to revive. We see a 5-6 per cent kind of growth this year too," he said.
On the inventory side, he said he expects it to be corrected this month, adding currently it is slightly higher at the dealership levels. "Production of any model has to be adjusted according to the demand," he said. He said the company will make sure that it maintains its market pie at 40 per cent. "Competition is a given in today's age, you cannot run away from it. All of them will try their best, but the market is large enough for everyone to grow in the mid-to long-term," he said, adding its sales dropped 14.4 per cent in May at 84,677 units as against 98,884 units a year ago.
