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Diesel, India and why Honda and Maruti should make it

In country where fuel efficiency is preferred over comfort and performance, you expect a company which produces only petrol engined cars to have a tough time selling their hot shots. But it isn’t so. Where companies give out diesel options to grab more market share, the two companies who relied on only petrol engines are Maruti Suzuki and Honda. Both had success but Honda proved bigger cars with petrol engines can give better fuel efficiency along with performance. Its hard to say which ones a better one, but I can surely say diesel engines have come a long way compared to the petrol ones.

But is it really worth making a diesel option in the same margin ? Majority Indians fancy diesel. So what if we give out a diesel option of a popular car by cutting some costs ? I’ll tell you, People will buy it, buy a lot. There are many examples for this like Swift & Dzire, Verna, Octavia, Laura .. the list will go on. Every one of these cars diesel version outsells the petrol. Its a simple fact, “lower running cost”. If any of you petrol-heads feel diesels are heavy and has higher maintenance cost, you might be right ! But the thing is - not all, the newer diesel engines are so good that their savings in the long run are higher than the maintenance costs, which also is very much less.

Maruti-Suzuki takes the easier route buying itself a license to put award winning FIAT MultiJet engines in its cars, rather than spend millions on development of a new diesel engine. So far its doing great. The Swift Diesel range is so popular, there was waiting time of months even when Automobile companies in the US were going bust. Imagine when SX4 diesel rolls out!

Turbocharged Honda i-DTEC Engine Where Maruti “needs” to make diesel cars, Honda has an option. So why isn’t Honda making a diesel engine ? Either, Its happy with the petrol cars or they have “this thing” for Koreans and Czechs. Well, the truth is, it is having a go at it - i-DTEC & i-CTDi, which will produce “Clean Diesel”. The i-DTEC engine series is capable of exceeding the proposed Euro6 regulations. Honda has made a great deal of progress with its advanced combustion management and after treatment systems and had show.
The new 2.2 litre i-CTDi power unit joins Honda’s intelligently-controlled i-series family of engines that already includes the i-VTEC and i-DSI range of petrol engines. It will be used to power, among others, the Honda Accord and, at a later date, the Honda CR-V.

So all we have to do is wait for a year or so to release it abroad and then wait for it study Indian market and then wait for it to release it here, which might be in ~~near~~ future.