Maruti Suzuki Aims To Sell 1 Million Green Vehicles In FY27, Launches Automatic S-CNG Range

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) is targeting 1 million "green vehicle" sales - spanning CNG, hybrid and EV - this financial year, helped by structural tailwinds such as rising crude prices and the introduction of automatic transmission in CNG variants.

The car market leader, under its Auto Green Mission, on Friday launched automatic S-CNG variants of its popular car models - Swift, Dzire and Baleno.

MSIL, a dominant player in the CNG category with a 70% market share, was earlier expecting sales of 8 to 9 lakh units of green vehicles this fiscal. However, it raised the projection with the introduction of new automatic transmission models, said Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales Partho Banerjee.

He noted thet CNG models previously lost out to petrol/automatic combinations because they lacked automatic transmission options.

The new Swift, Dzire and Baleno automatic S-CNG launches target exactly the "new-age customers who refuse to compromise", buyers who wanted CNG's running-cost benefit but would not give up automatic convenience, he said.

"This opens CNG to a segment that was previously unaddressed," Banerjee said in a media roundtable here.

Replying to a query whether high crude prices, hovering at $100 per barrel, will help amplify the adoption of green vehicles, he said: "Yes, no doubt about it. We are aiming for close to almost 1 million sales (FY27)." Maruti Suzuki is banking on its dominant position in the CNG segment to scale up towards the 1 million mark, with the company currently selling close to 80,000 CNG vehicles a month, he said.

Within its own portfolio, CNG penetration stands at around 43%, giving the company a strong base to expand rather than build demand from scratch, Banerjee said.

According to Banerjee, the primary constraint to higher CNG volumes is on the supply side rather than customer demand.

"I have gotten now a capacity restriction on the total CNG vehicles... I am playing with the CNG vehicles by allocating it based on my waiting periods," Banerjee said, adding that as production capacity — currently at 18,000 units a month — is ramped up, the company expects to unlock higher volumes.

"As soon as they are able to further increase the CNG supplies, we can take it to the next level," he said.

Asked if the new launches could push CNG penetration to 50% of the green portfolio, Banerjee said, "If we get the supplies, we are very hopeful... let's keep our fingers crossed" on whether this is achieved within the current fiscal.

MSIL claimed its Dzire automatic S-CNG is India's most fuel-efficient sedan, delivering a fuel efficiency of 36.47 km/kg.

The Dzire automatic S-CNG comes with introductory price of ₹8.53 lakh, the Swift automatic S-CNG at ₹7.92 lakh, and the Baleno automatic S-CNG at ₹8.32 lakh (ex-showroom).