CNG-fitted cars to bring a third of Tiago and Tigor sales: Tata Motors

That would translate to a tenth of its overall sales. The company sold about 84,000 units of its small cars Tiago and Tigor in 2021.

“Traction for CNG has gone up in the last two years with fuel prices going up as well as the rise in the number of CNG stations,” said Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles.

About 200,000 cars were sold with a factory-fitted CNG kit last year in a market of over 3 million cars, as per Tata Motors. The CNG sales were led by Maruti Suzuki, which sells one in every two cars in India.

With the government keen on setting up 800-1000 new CNG stations each year, the share of CNG vehicles was likely to go up further, Chandra said. Presently, there are about 3,500 CNG stations in the country, he said.

A comparatively cheaper fuel than petrol and diesel, CNG has been a popular choice amongst taxi fleet operators. Fitment of CNG after-market kits is another popular option amongst consumers.

However, Tata Motors wants to make factory-fitted CNG cars a popular choice amongst personal vehicle owners. The company on Wednesday launched its iCNG Tiago and Tigor targeted at personal vehicle buyers. Pending consumer preference, it would consider other models in its portfolio too for the CNG market.

“All products in our portfolio are candidates for CNG,” Chandra said. “We will be studying consumer preference for the same.”

While CNG is a popular choice amongst small car buyers, it is not that popular amongst buyers of larger cars like sport utility vehicles (SUV) given the toll it takes on the vehicle’s performance.