NEW DELHI: The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) is extending its CNG line-up to vehicles sold under premium retail chain Nexa. It targets a 75% jump in sales of these vehicles to 4 lakh units this fiscal. The company is introducing ‘S-CNG’ option to its premium hatchback Baleno and multi-purpose vehicle XL6 with prices starting at Rs 8.28 lakh and Rs 12.24 lakh, respectively.
The company has so far sold 11.4 lakh CNG vehicles since introducing the CNG technology in 2010 with three models, Eeco, Alto and WagonR. The carmaker has enhanced its CNG portfolio after it decided to end the production and the sale of diesel vehicles following the roll out of BS-VI emission norms early 2020.
Currently, MSIL has 10 CNG models out of the total of 16 models (that the company sells). With the two new models, MSIL’s CNG offering will go up to 12 models. The company said the production has already started for Baleno and XL6 CNG options and that they will start sale in the first week of November. Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing & sales, MSIL, said “Through market studies, we have learnt that the premium segment customers are actively looking for eco-friendly options without compromising on performance, technology, safety and driving experience. Baleno S-CNG and XL6 S-CNG have been developed keeping these uncompromising NEXA customers in mind.”
He added, “Nexa typically gives about 20 per cent of overall Maruti Suzuki volumes. However, CNG has not been present in Nexa. It is now coming in Baleno, which is around 60 per cent of the total Nexa volumes. So I would expect a good percentage of Baleno S-CNG volume.” MSIL claims a fuel efficiency of 30.61 km/kg for the Baleno CNG and a mileage of 26.32 km/kg for XL6.