On 7 March, around two weeks after Russian troops entered Ukraine, the Government of India finally bit the bullet and the Oil Marketing Companies raised prices of petrol and diesel. Companies retailing compressed natural gas were also allowed to raise the price. In the three months since then, Indraprastha Gas Limited, the monopoly distributor of CNG in the National Capital Region has raised prices of the cost-efficient fuel a cumulative 13 times, last on 21 May, with a kilogram now costing Rs 75.61, almost half as much more than it did back at the end of 2021. In fact, since March, the retail price of CNG has increased by Rs 19.60/kg and unlike petrol or diesel, gas buyers haven’t been cut any excise slack. You can see this price increase reflected in your auto and taxi fares as well as in your gas bills in case you own a piped gas connection. Price hikes notwithstanding, demand for CNG vehicles is still sky-high. So much so, that CNG has played a major role in helping Tata Motors post robust sales numbers. The passenger vehicle arm of one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates has been challenging- ing Hyundai Motor India for the second spot on the sales charts over the past few months and two of the vehicles helping them are its small hatchback the Tiago and its compact sedan sibling, the Tigor. Combined, the two, over the past few months, have been selling between 8,500-9000 units monthly. In late January, Tata Motors launched the ‘CNG’ variants of both cars and according to Rajan Amba, vice-president, of sales marketing and customer care, Tata Motors, the new variants contribute to 52 percent of the sales of the two models.
What’s driving sales Clearly, it isn’t just taxi operators choosing CNG cars nowadays. Factory-fitted CNG vehicles now account for eight percent of passenger vehicle volumes in In- dia. And there are quite a few reasons for that. First and foremost is a marked improvement in the quality of CNG kits being offered by carmakers.
India’s top-three manufacturers, Maru- ti-Suzuki, Hyundai, and Tata, making CNG vehicles available has given a boost to sales. Shashank Srivastava, executive director, sales and marketing, Maruti- Suzuki, said that the country’s largest carmaker sold 2.35 lakh CNG-fitted vehicles in the fiscal year ended March 2022. The second reason for this surge is the dramatic expansion of the CNG network in India. According to Amba, currently, India has around 3,000 CNG pumps and that number is expected to touch 10,000 by 2030. CNG vehicles can also switch to running on petrol with a push of a button (albeit not as efficiently as a pure-petrol vehicle). This assuages CNG owners that they will not ‘run out of gas’ at some godforsaken hour in the middle of nowhere. New factory-fitted kits also use space more efficiently, store more gas and despite the steep rise in gas prices, CNG vehicles on an average remain between Rs 2-3 per kilometer cheaper to operate than petrol ones. And residents of the NCR used to the quixotic ‘odd-even’ rule during days of heavy pollution, know that CNG vehicles are exempt from it. There is more to it. CNG vehicles have become a lot nicer to drive. In January, when Tata Motors showcased the new ‘iCNG’ range of the Tiago and Tigor, I drove a Tiago iCNG around Delhi. Not so long ago, not only were CNG options usually fitted.
