JUMPING ON THE CNG BANDWAGON

INDIA'S TOP CARMAKERS ARE RACING TO CATER TO THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR CNG-POWERED VEHICLES FROM WALLET-CONSCIOUS CUSTOMERS. BUT THERE ARE CHALLENGES AHEAD, INCLUDING THE LIMITED NUMBER OF CNG FILLING STATIONS AND THE POTENTIAL CHALLENGE FROM ELECTRIC VEHICLES

- ASTHA ORIEL

BESIDES, AN INCREASE IN EV ADOPTION COULD LIMIT GROWTH LIKE IT DID IN CHINA

BUT CNG CARS HAVE LOW PICK-UP, ARE LESS ENERGY EFFICIENT, AND HAVE LOWER TORQUE AND HORSEPOWER. THAT LIMITS THE OPTION TO THE ENTRY-LEVEL OR SMALL CAR SEGMENT

LOW OPERATING COSTS OF CNG POWERTRAINS HAVE LURED CUSTOMERS. THESE VEHICLES ALSO OFFER BETTER MILEAGE AND HAVE CARBON EMISSIONS

IMPROVEMENT IN INFRASTUCTURE WITH AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF CNG STATIONS HAS INCREASED MARKET PENETRATION

LONG QUEUES OUTSIDE CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations are a common enough sight in Delhi, Mumbai, and other metros. But there has been a significant change in recent years, and it has almost gone unnoticed. The vehicles waiting patiently at these pumps aren't limited to autorickshaws or taxis anymore; there's a sizeable chunk of private passenger vehicles as well.

Introduced in the late 1990s after the Supreme Court asked the Delhi government to find an alternative to petrol and diesel to control the choking air pollution, CNG has taken a while to gain popularity. Since it was friendly on the pocket, by the early 2000s, automakers started retrofitting CNG cylinders in the boots of diesel and petrol cars. But it still wouldn't take off.

"There was only a limited amount of fuelling infrastructure that was available throughout the country, and you could obviously see huge lines of cars that used to gather around a CNG station to get the CNG refilled. An improvement in the infrastructure over time has aided the popularity of the powertrain," says Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Vice President, Corporate Ratings at ratings agency ICRA.