[silverado]

Voted NO.

CNG kills boot space, if i am taking a car for leisure drives and i need to keep stuff near my legs it kills the purpose of buying a car.

CNG refuelling needs everyone to get down, which is a pain. Imagine you have an elderly person and a small infant in car who need to step down everytime you need to refuel.

You need to plan your refuel to beat long queues.
Its not available on all highways, unless you are in GJ.

And i am not even talking about driving pleasure that it kills, CNG is only good for solo commuters in city IMO.

[Tech]

These polls represent the voices of the percentage mix of bhpians here and the cng conditions they have in their respective cities or their lifestyle. The poll says nothing about CNG being a bad choice.

CNG is a hybrid car, you can run it on petrol anytime, there's no need to stand in queues if you are in a hurry and are finding long queue, everyday you don't see long queues and you can avoid filling CNG the day your elders are travelling, to prevent making them get down, such simple choices are very much possible.

Not many will consider 5L premium for EV Cars, which the auto industry is simply taking customers for granted with a technology which has yet to be stabilized, with the best efficient EV technology changing every 6 months, some new technology will continue to create ripples every now and then leaving customers who already bought at premium price 6 months down the lane, thinking whether they made a smart choice or not.

Many of us bhpians are living an affluent life and are in big metros or like driving pleasure and won't think much before buying their nth premium audi or bmw car tomorrow or now that they have already bought their gas guzzler SUV, won't prefer anything else, defending their decisions, inspite of paying huge on fuel.

Many of us affluent bhpians in our job will extract the most out of our team members giving them least increments and show increased productivity to our management at job, but we won't apply the same principles on our vehicles and demand more mileage or more efficiency or more return on our investment on car or fuel, but will happily sway to the tune of inefficient car manufacturers who bother least to improve input output ratio or fuel consumption of gas guzzlers.

Just like top selling cars in India, Swift, Wagon R, Alto are not our choices, similarly CNG fuels are not our choice or are least in our preference for many of us.

So new guys, do as per the conditions in your city and not by our choices in this poll. There are many bhpians who swear by Diesel even today but the reality in NCR is something else and will soon roll down to other big metros also in a few years time.

More manufacturers are offering CNG in more than 50% of their product mix and that says a lot.

The 2 wheeler industry has also recently embraced CNG few days back, which says a lot.

And I am not even considering the sales growth of CNG segment, which says volumes on its own :

https://www.autocarindia.com/industr...y-march-430594

https://www.autocarpro.in/analysis-s...-per-kg-119546

https://www.business-standard.com/co...1200215_1.html

[moto_rrevver]

Hello all,

First of all, no hate for people who voted "No" for CNG vehicles in 2024. Presumably, most of them have never used a CNG vehicle in their day-to-day life. Many mentioned the benefits of a hybrid or EV over CNG, and I agree, all the points mentioned completely make sense. The major differentiator is the initial cost and cost of running. Let me elaborate on the mindset of people buying CNG instead of hybrid or EV. I will not talk about the commercial applications of CNG vehicles.

Initial Cost
Cost of cheapest EV available in the market: ₹8.5 lakh on road, Tiago EV Medium Range variant.
Cost of cheapest CNG vehicle: ₹6.5 lakh on road, Alto K10 CNG.
CNG vehicles one should consider: Punch and Altroz, because of their boot space. People who are afraid of Tata's unreliability can go for the new Hyundai Exter with the same dual cylinder tech.

People who consider CNG
Let's consider a person whose office is 15 to 20 km from their place, and their hometown is 200 to 500 km from their workplace, or they go on occasional road trips. This person can't consider an electric vehicle like the Tiago medium range, they have to invest in a car with a considerably larger battery pack, and hence the initial cost will also increase drastically. The same goes for hybrids currently present in India. Maybe after Maruti launches its new Swift hybrid, things might change.

Boot issue
The boot space issue is 70% solved now, with a few cars offering the dual cylinder tech. I believe that is the only major issue in considering a CNG car, which needs some more design changes to accommodate more boot space. All CNG cars should have this so that people can choose according to their needs and requirements. If you have a petrol sedan you can retrofit a CNG kit and still you will be left with a huge boot space, I have a SX4 with retrofitted CNG kit, and I carry 2 big trolleys, 1 small trolley and few soft luggage in my boot without an issue.

ROI
You will have to drive a considerable number of kilometers to justify the extra cost paid for EVs or hybrids. In a CNG vehicle, the ROI is faster.

Let's sum it up in one line:
People considering buying a vehicle with low running costs, who can't afford a hybrid and don't want the range anxiety of an EV due to long highway runs, can consider CNG vehicles with dual cylinder tech. Alternatively, if their car is out of warranty and has an NA engine, they can consider retrofitting their car with a good CNG sequential kit from a reputed dealer, provided the CNG station network is good in your state.

My Experience
I am lucky to have a pre-owned 2008 SX4, which I converted to CNG when the odometer was at 78,000. Now it has done over 1 lakh kilometers and is still going strong with a little bit of care. I have done multiple Pune -> Goa -> Pune runs with friends and family, never faced a boot space issue (will attach the image of my boot here). If you plan your trip well enough, you will not have to wait in queues for CNG, as the number of CNG pumps has increased drastically in the last four years.



I think CNG is a great bargain between the high running cost of petrol cars and the high initial cost of EVs and hybrid vehicles.

[Tech]

Originally Posted by Tech

CNG cars were the first "Hybrids" dual fuel tech, when they first arrived years back. Had they been marketed properly using fancy terms such as "Hybrids" as a cool tech, the adoption rate would have been much higher and if that happened maybe more R&D might have gone into it to reduce the pain points people are mentioning above. Govt increased the cost of CNG when they could have given more subsidies for a greener environment.

Glad to know that Hyundai named their new entrant as Exter Hy- CNG Duo, after I first mentioned it here that CNG cars were the first true "Hybrids" long long back in early 2000s when they started to get attention. Wish Hyundai all the very best with their marketing initiatives and addressing the biggest pain point over which fellow team bhpians loved to point it out as a con.

[horseblood]

Excellent points by @Tech & @moto_rrevver.

Disclaiming any offence, here's my observations:

I am surprised by the following-

1) Many people despising CNG are often the same who would praise the enviro credentials of EVs! Hello!? Hypocrite much or dumb-some? EV's enviro 'friendliness' is debatable & their mineral supply chain associated social/criminal repercussions are conviniently glossed over.
Not to mention the-

1. 'greenness' of the electricity itself used for charging,
2. lack of repairability (read discarding) of parts including batteries & the associated enviro footprint,
3. opaqueness of the entire system on board
4. proprietary softwares with server-goes-down-vehicle-goes-down scenario & no open source recourse to the owner. Think of what happens when our digital goods are out of support. Even a simple factory reset sometimes becomes a nightmare.
5. curtailment of consumer's ownership rights.....

None of that with CNG except for the routine 'invisible' emissions within the 'natural (read fossil) gas' infra which does cause significant damage since methane is 85x more potent GHG vs CO2 over a 20 year period. But the end user cannot do much about it anyways so not 'our' bother aside from routine maintenance to ensure no leak in our vehicle. Besides, it's a problem which has been recognised just recently so going forward, this would improve.

2) Since most of us here are IT/engineer folks, I wonder if people even know the meaning of being an engineer. It's not the pedal-to-the-metal attitude to push for performance (read speed, or more precisely hp obsession) bar no resources. Any layman can do that & find joy in it. Heck, even the Taliban 'made' a supercar didn't they? But they couldn't make a 'simple' mass market car that is reliable, long lasting while being within budget could they? Becoz it takes a real engineer to work within the constraints of limited resources yet deliver a reliable, long term solution/product/output.

To me an engineer's utmost quality is EFFICIENCY/RESOURCEFULNESS. To extract the maximum output from a limiting set of factors/resources/constraints (shoutout to my economist fellows here ). Towards that end, CNG is more 'thrilling' to me than mph madness. To see how I can derive the maximum output off this limited tank of gas, keeping the hole in my pocket as small as possible while enjoying all the comforts of a safe (read within safe speed), plush ride conversating with my buddy in the hood, that is what gives my engineer brain the real dopamine. Why would I want to stress my 'friend' all the time, potentially hurting him?

If I have companions who cannot get out of the car every 200 km? so what I'll enjoy the tank of petrol. It is optimising this equation that is rewarding. Don't the EV guys do the same with their novel methods of keeping the cabin cool in a parked car, their constant obsession with the km/Wh figure?

It's coming from the same place, an engineer mindset of resource frugality which is what the world needs & our culture excels in!!!
It's time we recognise the ways in which we are alike than to highlight our differences & please stop ostracising/belittling CNG users. In doing that, frankly you're only exposing your dumbness or worse, hypocrisy.

Long read? Yes
Rantful? Sure.
May ruffle someone's feathers? Perhaps.

But somebody needed to point this out & I don't mind volunteering for advocacy of a good idea even it seems ridiculous by popular standards. Isn't it what renaissance pioneers did?

Personally, I have never been bored off a single automobile, howsoever used or abused or ordinary. I approach them from a mindset of empathy, starting them off, listening to their mood, state of health, grievances & tantrums. Just like any animal who cannot speak but does expresses itself through non-verbal communication means. Then I try to explore their eccentricities to understand their unique personality & treat them within their limits.

With this approach I've found more joy in spending time with neglected & abused vehicles than brand new ones. Even while borrowing from a friend who lives in the hilly states & hardly cares for machines, he expected me to curse his poorly kept scooty & a bike by the end of a short trip nearby while visiting him. To his utter surprise & mine too, I bonded more with those 2 vehicles than any other I've ridden so far. It is this appreciation of machines that has brought me on this forum.

Hoping to give some food for thought.

Cheers!

[Tech]

EV reality in India as per latest article in the Economic Times dtd 28 Jul 2024, specially for all those who said they will choose EV over CNG, except those in south etc places where they have many EV charging stations, easily accessible.

Survey reveals why most EV Owners in India want to switch back to ICE vehicles:

https://m.economictimes.com/industry.../112083415.cms


Who will service your EV car ? ET : 16 Mar 2024 & 27 Jan 2024

https://m.economictimes.com/industry.../108552067.cms

https://m.economictimes.com/small-bi.../107131902.cms

[Tech]

Quoting the latest news from TusharK here, supplementing what was mentioned above.

CNG & Hybrid sales surge in India as EV growth slows

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...wth-slows.html (CNG & Hybrid sales surge in India as EV growth slows)