KOZHIKODE: Diesel is the new petrol with more and more people opting for diesel-powered vehicles in the city, thanks to repeated hikes in petrol prices. Major car dealers in the city are all reporting the same trend with the public opting for diesel cars due to their higher fuel economy and the relative cheap rate of diesel. Chevrolet dealer German Motors offers major proof of this.“The diesel version of their popular economy model Chevrolet Beat is experiencing higher bookings than the petrol version of the same car,” said German Motors regional manager Rathish C. KTC Hyundai also reports data that follow this trend with their diesel driven Verna model booked many times more than other models.Company officials report that demand for the model is so heavy that they are struggling to meet it.“We have more than a hundred pending bookings for the Hyundai Verna while we receive around 6 cars per month from Hyundai,” said KTC Hyundai sales manager Kishore. PK Saheer, deputy sales manager at Maruti dealer Indus Motors pegs this down to the recent hikes that petrol prices have undergone. “Diesel models have a running cost that is half that of petrol models,” he said.“The recent price hikes have resulted in a trend of people choosing diesel cars over petrol and this has prompted many new entrants like Chevrolet Beat, Nissan Micra and Volkswagen Polo to enter the diesel market,” he added.According to Saheer, the Maruti’s diesel model Swift is so much in demand that a customer booking it in Kozhikode will have to wait nearly six months before it is delivered.He adds that Indus Motors currently has more than 1200 bookings for the Maruti Swift from the Malabar region. The same trend is also being exhibited in the used cars segment. Sudhesh Kumar, who runs Car Lounge, a used cars showroom here said that diesel cars were among the fastest selling in the medium segment.“Diesel models like Swift and Innova are much in demand. Petrol cars are still selling in the smaller cars segment due to a lack of ready availability of diesel models,” he said.
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