Last month, Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, dropped a bombshell in the market. It announced that it will stop making small diesel cars from next year. Immediately, it puts a big question mark on the future of the company’s bestsellers—diesel-only cars like the Brezza and the S-Cross.
The company’s announcement of not upgrading its small diesel cars to BS6 norms—which means a complete drop out of the segment from April 2020—came as a surprise to the automobile industry. At its peak in 2016-17, diesel cars accounted for 31 per cent of Maruti Suzuki’s sales, which have since then dipped to 26 per cent. Maruti Suzuki registered its highest ever sales of 18.62 lakh units in 2018-19 as against 17.79 lakh units the previous year.
Announcing the decision to not upgrade the company’s small diesel car range to BS6 norms, R.C. Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, had explained that “upgrading small diesel engines to BS6 emission regulations...
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