Should you choose CNG as an alternative to diesel?

CNG has been becoming more popular in recent years. This leads to the fact that the majority of car manufacturers begin to fund CNG-powered vehicles research. More interestingly, there have been automakers thinking to stop producing diesel-powered cars in India, especially Maruti Suzuki which is gradually discontinuing diesel cars in 2020. As a result, the companies have to find an alternative fuel for diesel, and CNG is the chosen one for a couple of reasons. Below are some prominent factors that make car buyers prefer CNG over diesel.

CNG vs. diesel

Environmentally friendly

As global warming and pollution are getting worse day by day, people try their best to save the environment which was harmed by their past conducts. One of the attempts is using environmentally friendly energy sources. Therefore, to reduce the harmful gases emission of vehicles, CNG is the best candidate we have right now. In Indian big cities, where the exhaust emission is high, CNG is definitely a big help to significantly ease the severity of the issues. Frankly, if you want to improve the environment by reducing the exhaust, go for CNG.

Longer lifespan

Normally, a CNG engine can operate smoothly up to an average of 10 years while the number is just 7 years on a diesel engine. Therefore, we can say that CNG engines often have a better lifespan than diesel variants. However, the lifespan of a car relies on many factors rather than just the type of fuel.

Cost recovery

For people who aren’t familiar with CNG vehicles, they may think it is too costly compared to diesel-version of the same car. However, the cost recovery on CNG vehicles is less than a diesel variant. That is to say, CNG powered car owners can recover the buying cost faster than the other owners because, on average, the price of CNG is 30-50% cheaper than diesel.

Availability

If you live in a big city, finding a CNG station is just a piece of cake. Note that with a full tank, a CNG car can run for around 300 km, which means, based on average consumption, you’ll need to refill the tank every 9 days. If you drive more often than that, you may want to choose a CNG car with a dual fuel tank. On this type of car, you can switch to petrol if the CNG tank is empty. Moreover, you can drive up to 1000 km depending on the model.

On the other hand, in other areas, CNG stations may be difficult to find because CNG is new and it needs a quite amount of time for CNG to be preferred more than petrol and diesel. Fortunately, because people are becoming more interested in CNG powered cars, there will be more of its stations in India.

Despite having more positive features than diesel, CNG still faces a minor problem. That is the hatchbacks in the Indian market have to share the boot space for the CNG kit. And because of this, it leaves little room for luggage. However, this can be sold by increasing the boot room!

All in all, CNG is more potential and beneficial than diesel in many ways, but it is new and India has to spend time and money to make it widely available. For environment and cost recovery, CNG powered cars are still one of the better choices compared to diesel ones.