Gone are the days where the general consumer wouldn’t even sniff new models that do not have diesel variants. The earlier belief was that diesel cars were more viable, and due to this belief, car makers started ramping up their diesel engine capacity. The growing demand for the diesel models had led to over six months’ waiting period for some popular cars. Car makers like Maruti Suzuki who wanted to reduce this backlog started working on their diesel car capacities and the production rate of cars like Maruti Swift and Dzire was increased. Now, times are changing and car makers are witnessing a sudden spike in the demand for petrol-driven cars.

Shashank Srivastava, Maruti’s chief general manager (marketing) admits that diesel car sales are swelling even now, but the sale of petrol variants is also surging. The scenario was very different earlier. Now, petrol forms around 37 per cent of total Swift sales, which is up by 5 per cent as compared to last year. The not-so-new models like the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Skoda Fabia, Ford Fiesta, Fiat Palio, Mahindra Renault Logan and Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire saw much more demand for their diesel variants than for their petrol counterparts. However, the latest models like the Ford Figo, Volkswagen Polo, Hyundai i20 and Maruti Ritz have been seeing greater or equal demand for petrol variants in comparison with their diesel counterparts.

Of late, the difference in petrol and diesel prices has been narrowing. Analysts tracking the industry feel that this narrowing price gap could be the primary reason why petrol cars are regaining lost ground against the diesel variants. Way back in June 2006, petrol was priced at Rs 47.51 per litre and diesel could be availed at Rs 32.47 a litre in Delhi. The difference in the two fuels was around Rs 15, but today, the difference is Rs 11.56 and this price difference seems to be gradually diminishing.

Car makers too seem to be noticing the latest trend, and, in addition to revamping the production of diesel cars, they have started churning out more petrol cars. Maruti Suzuki will be producing more petrol versions of its latest hatchback Ritz than the diesel Ritz. Also, demand for the Swift petrol has increased after it was re-launched with a new 1.2 litre KB series engine in February this year.

A Mumbai-based auto analyst says, “Petrol has long been associated as an expensive fuel due to its higher price over diesel but the addition of new technologies like turbo charger (which generates more power by improving air-fuel mix) has taken the fuel efficiency to a new level.”

There’s another reason for the changing trend. The price of a diesel car is higher compared to its petrol equivalent. Secondly, the maintenance charges of diesel cars are higher than that of petrol cars. Thirdly, diesel cars fetch a much lower value on resale compared to petrol cars.

Sales of diesel cars had doubled in the past decade to reach 25 per cent of the total 1.2 million units sold in India. But, as the country is moving towards decontrolled fuel prices, car buyers are likely to opt for the more affordable petrol cars to keep their cost of operations low.