We have been hearing a lot about Honda Cars India’s plans for launching a CNG + petrol dual fuel variant of its popular sedan- the Honda City CNG. This step has been announced to counter the falling sales graph of the company and it believes that the dual fuel variant will improve the revenues.
Now the interesting piece of information coming from one of the fellow automobile blogs, Indiancarsbikes, is that Volkswagen is keen on competing with the CNG Honda City and is currently testing a CNG + petrol dual fuel version of the Volkswagen Vento CNG. Now that the City CNG is a few weeks away, Volkswagen is concentrating more on the Vento CNG for the time being.
The upcoming Vento will come with a factory fitted CNG tank and kit and is anticipated to cost approximately Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 70,000 more than the equivalent petrol version of the Vento.
The addition of the CNG kit to the petrol Vento will make it much more cost effective as the running cost will come down by a significant level and also the very variant will pollute the environment less as CNG burns much more cleaner than petrol or diesel. Evidently, more than competing with City CNG, it is about following the recent trend where manufacturers are offering factory fitted CNG kits with many of their models to make them cost effective for their owners, thus boosting demand.
Although the news is confirmed for new Volkswagen Vento CNG models, but whether the company will offer the same kit, at the same price, to existing Vento petrol owners to upgrade, is not known yet.
Of the two models of the Vento, 1.6 L Petrol and 1.4 L Diesel, the diesel one sells in good numbers while the petrol contributes on a minor level only. With the introduction of the Volkswagen Vento CNG + Petrol variant, Volkswagen is hoping to get a boost in sales. Further if Volkswagen installs the same kit in the popular Skoda Rapid, the sedan could also see an appreciable boost in sales.
Now it remains to be seen when the German maker will launch the Vento CNG. For more updates on the car, do stay tuned.
Source – ICB
