Mercedes-Benz MD & CEO & Wilfried Aulbur shares his experience where he confesses that customers were increasingly opting for the new-age diesel engine vehicles that offer instant acceleration and higher torque even as petrol is trying to catch-up on the technological changes. The recent surge can also be attributed to the more advanced CRDi technology which is now available across all the segments and also comes loaded in basic diesel vehicles such as Mahindra's Bolero and Tata Motors' Indica hatchback.

The technology, which was first launched by Hyundai in its Accent sedan eight years ago, allows diesel to burn much faster, thereby delivering higher fuel efficiency and instant pick-up.

Several carmakers are now looking to develop more diesel cars. Honda is looking to launch diesel variants of its popular cars such as City and Civic in two years. Maruti Suzuki is also building its diesel sales portfolio. Diesel-fueled car sales have grown to form almost 30 per cent of its total domestic demand, since its first launch (Swift diesel) in 2007. While General Motors offers Cruze sedan only in diesel variant, Maruti is planning to launch its biggest model Sx4 in diesel. In the small car market, Hyundai will soon launch its flagship compact car i10 in diesel.Nissan also plans to come up with variant of the Micra such as a sedan as also a diesel version. Asked if the fancy for diesel cars would continue, there were market peculiarities - in South, the diesel-petrol vehicles ratio is 40:60, whereas in elsewhere it could be 20:80.

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