[Aditya]

In December 2015, the Supreme Court of India passed an order banning the registration of diesel cars with engine capacities larger than 2,000cc till March 31, 2016 in Delhi.

Manufacturers such as Mahindra, Tata and Toyota that depend heavily on diesel-powered vehicles, have been hit hard by this ban. Mahindra and Toyota have already started considering smaller diesel engines and petrol powerplants for their vehicles.

Luxury carmakers have been affected by the ban as well. Land Rover is one of them. At present the company has no vehicle in its product portfolio with a diesel powerplant under 2,000cc. Its smallest diesel engine is a 2,179cc, 4-cylinder unit. Further, except certain variants of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, all Land Rover SUVs use diesel engines only.



With the demand for petrol vehicles likely to rise, the British company is rumoured to be considering the expansion of its petrol SUV model line-up in India.

According to a media report, Land Rover is likely to use a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine to power the Discover Sport and the Range Rover Evoque. This engine develops 237 BHP and is mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission.

For the Discovery, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover, the company is likely to use a 3.0-litre, V6 supercharged petrol engine that develops 335 BHP. This powerplant is mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox.

With the addition of these engines, prospective customers will be able to get their vehicles registered in Delhi once again.

Source: Autocar India

[Sahil]

This is the first of many luxury car makers that will follow suit. The future for luxury cars in India will be petrol. It was always the preferred choice by luxury buyers but due to very low FE and high petrol prices the diesels were preferred. Things have now changed, petrol engines are now turbo charged giving great FE and petrol prices are down. Petrol engines are always cheaper to build and maintain.
Waiting to see petrol and petrol hybrids reign in the luxury car market. Hopefully priced lower than their diesel counterparts.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Sahil

This is the first of many luxury car makers that will follow suit. The future for luxury cars in India will be petrol. It was always the preferred choice by luxury buyers but due to very low FE and high petrol prices the diesels were preferred. Things have now changed, petrol engines are now turbo charged giving great FE and petrol prices are down. Petrol engines are always cheaper to build and maintain.
Waiting to see petrol and petrol hybrids reign in the luxury car market. Hopefully priced lower than their diesel counterparts.

The government is highly unstable. Tomorrow they may say high powered petrol engines are more polluting. They may suddenly start banning that too. So all we petrol heads should make content with 3 cylinder turbo engines ?

Also no one is really sure how long oil prices will be this low. There is still a lot of uncertainty and confusion and there is no reason government has to pass on the low prices in petrol to us since they just keep increasing the excise duty each time.

Petrol being the fuel of choice is still uncertain.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Things have now changed, petrol engines are now turbo charged giving great FE and petrol prices are down.

It's the new generation of direct-injection turbo-petrols that offer acceptable fuel economy. I don't think the 2.0L being spoken of here is a direct injection.

And that V6 with 335 BHP is going to be a serious guzzler in a 2,000 kilo SUV. Expect FE to be in the 4 kpl range for city driving.