Almost every buyer today has a hard time deciding whether to purchase a petrol, diesel or a CNG vehicle, looking at the current fuel inflation rate. Sample this: diesel is priced at Rs. 51.97/ litre, petrol at Rs. 74.10/ litre and CNG at Rs. 41.9/ kg in New Delhi. There is also a decision to be taken whether to install a CNG kit or to purchase a factory fitted CNG vehicle. We try to look at all these issues as per our experience in the field.
Factors influencing the buyer decision
a) Environment friendly: CNG is known to produce lower levels of carbon monoxide as against petrol and diesel. Overall emissions are 20% lower on an average. Interestingly, even diesel produces emissions that are 15% lesser than petrol, which is due to new technology.
b) Cost of purchase: A petrol vehicle would be Rs. 4000-8000 cheaper than a corresponding CNG counterpart and Rs. 75,000-1,30,000 lesser than the diesel version.
c) Running Costs : :A CNG car would cost only Rs. 2-2.50 per kg, to run, delivering mileage of 17-19 km/ kg. In comparison, a diesel variant costs about Rs. 4/ km while petrol is the most expensive at Rs. 5-7.5 per km. Thus CNG running costs are less than half of either petrol or diesel.
d) Driveability of vehicle: Maruti Swift produces lower power in the diesel version than the petrol variant. Its 1.3 litre DDiS diesel engine generates 75 ps power with high torque of 190Nm of torque, while the 1.2 litre K-Series petrol engine generates a 86 ps power but lower torque of 114Nm. This translates into peppier acceleration in the diesel, but lower top end speed.
Based on the above factors, the buyer can decide what suits him the best. For long distance running, diesel or CNG should definitely be chosen.