After months of great demand and one of the reason of growth in Indian automobile industry this year, demand for diesel cars have finally gone down. Blame it on the reduced price gap between diesel and petrol and the confusion over fuel policies.
The government was planning to slap a special tax on diesel cars. The plan was to impose Rs 1.70 lakh on small diesel cars and Rs 2.55 lakh on medium and large diesel cars like sedans and SUVs to keep a check on dieselisation, thanks to the widening gap between petrol and diesel.
"The new trend is that even diesel vehicles are not moving that fast and dealers of most diesel models are stuck with stocks," said Ashok Khanna, senior executive VP and business head, auto loans, HDFC Bank.
"December is traditionally a dull month and this year has been slow till four-to-five days ago when the flows began to pick up speed. The footfalls in dealerships are not going up as expected — buyers seem to want to defer their purchase."
Uncertainty over the fuel policies has taken consumers’ confidence away from buying new cars due to which the cars which had waiting for months are now sold with discounts.
