G BALACHANDARChennai, November 8

The recovery in the commer-cial vehicles industry appearsto have a tinge of ‘green’ with asurge in sales of CNG (com-pressed natural gas)-poweredtrucks.

Demand for CNG-poweredtrucks is on the rise in the pasttwo quarters due to improvedavailability of CNG and lowercost of operations.

For Tata Motors, India’s topcommercial vehicle company,CNG models make up 40-50per cent of ICVs (intermediatecommercial vehicles) /LCVs(light commercial vehicles)and 15 per cent of SCVs (smallcommercial vehicles),

VE Commercial Vehicles, thethird largest medium andheavy-duty commercialvehicle company, indicatedthat CNG models were doingwell in the light and mediumduty truck portfolio, where it

witnessed about 50 per centswing in favour of CNG fromdiesel.

“In the new commercialvehicle sales one particular dif-ferentiating item what wehave witnessed this time is thedemand for CNG vehicles. CNGvehicle sales have been con-stant at about 25,000 units ayear in the past three years. Butin the last six months, CNGvehicle sales rose to 31,529units. That means new vehiclesales are moving towards CNGsignifi�cantly, and especially inthe corridor where it is avail-able. After Delhi, CNG availabil-ity is reasonably good in theMumbai-Delhi corridor,” says

Umesh Revankar, Vice-Chair-man and Managing Director,Shriram Transport FinanceCompany Ltd.

Cost is keySince the cost of CNG is abouthalf the price of diesel, truck-ers see a 50 per cent reductionin their operational cost. Sens-ing good benefi�ts and profi�tab-ility, scores of truck owners arealso fi�tting CNG kits in their ex-isting vehicles.

CNG availability is good inthe Ahmedabad to Delhi cor-ridor and in Baroda to Mumbaicorridor. It is also available tillKanpur in Uttar Pradesh and anumber of CNG stations are

being ramped up in the Mum-bai-Bengaluru corridor, addsRevankar.

Promoting CNG Not just in India, even globallycommercial trucks contributeto emissions in a big way andthe eff�orts to make them moreenvironment-friendly didn’tsee much progress. In India,which is one of the largest CVmarkets in the world, the num-ber of polluting trucks is high.

Though the Centre has madesome beginning with the an-nouncement of a scrappagepolicy, there have been big ef-forts to push CNG-poweredvehicles as a viable alternativeto diesel-powered ones.

Industry representatives saythat truckers would graduallymove towards CNG or evenLNG (as the latter is more effi�-cient than CNG). With LNG,trucks can carry double theload. But LNG availabilityneeds to improve. Overall, thenext 2-3 years will see a hugeshift (including retrofi�tments)towards CNG or LNG.

“When the freight rate isfi�xed at diesel price, smart op-erators use CNG vehicles (orretrofi�t CNG kits) and makemore profi�ts,” says Revankar.

Demand up as CNGis available at halfthe price of diesel;lowers truckers’operational cost

Globally, commercial trucks contribute to emissions in a big way

CNG-powered trucks fi�re up CV market