We speak to Rishi Goel, Director& C.E.O at Shivam Autozone India Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai about Maruti Suzuki's performance and trends that the highest selling car brand in the country is setting at the moment. We try and understand how do certain fuels perform. Read further to get an understanding for the same.
Q1) Shivam has its own driving schools. Please tell us more about it?
Rishi: Maruti Suzuki has the concept of driving schools, and we despite being a young dealership have opted for this. We believe it is our responsibility to educate people about driving safer, as India has one of the highest road accidents. We have been rated as the best-driving school in the Western region, which includes Maharashtra and Goa. We have now opened our second training school at Charkop, the first is of course at the flagship showroom on SV Road, Kandivili.
Q2) How has the response for AMT been in Mumbai?
Rishi: There has seen a huge rush in our showrooms and the response has been tremendous for AMTs. There are no two things about it. A lot of people want to buy the AMT.
Q3) How kind of a buyer picks up CNG? Is there any trend that has been observed?
Rishi: Mumbai is a vast city, so there are a lot of commuters who travel from North to South or the vice versa. For example, about 55-70% of sales are by CNG in models that have CNG variants.
Q4) Recently there has been a rise in the demand of petrol cars due to reduction in fuel prices. You think this will remain for a longer duration?
Rishi: The petrol and diesel prices have now narrowed down to Rs 10, so petrol cars will have an edge over diesel even in the future.
Q5) So, how will smaller diesel engine powered hatchbacks perform against these strong petrols?
Rishi: For a diesel engine to be successful, it has to be priced well. If you see AMT is a cheaper alternative for smaller cars, so ideally the diesel has to be priced in that range so that they will have an advantage.
Source : MotorOctane
