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Petrol vs CNG vs Diesel….

What type of car to go for?

With the rising prices of petroleum products, almost everyone gets caught in the problem of choosing the type of fuel in which the vehicle shall be purchased.

So, having owned a petrol and a CNG car for years and having relatives with diesel cars I think you might want to have a look at this before you take a decision or recommend someone on the same.

The price of petrol currently in Delhi has risen to Rs. 67.26 from Rs. 55.27 since January 2011. Similarly, CNG Prices from Jan 2011 have arisen from Rs. 29 to Rs. 39.40, and diesel Prices have risen from Rs. 38 to Rs. 47.65 in the past year.

There are a lot of areas of concern before one decides on a car and its impact on one’s pocket.

Many of those have been discussed below:

1. Cost of the car: 

Among the 3 types of fuel, the cost of a petrol car is always the lowest. A CNG kit in all the brands costs about 55,000-60,000 INR to the petrol version of the car. And the diesel version costs about Rs. 1,00,000-1,30,000 more than the petrol version.

2. Maintenance Cost:

Petrol and CNG cars have the same servicing/maintenance cost. There are no additional expenses in a CNG car. But maintaining a diesel car is usually a little more expensive. It costs about Rs. 4,000-7,000 more than the petrol/CNG version.

3. Life of the car:

Petrol and CNG cars again have a good life of about 9-12 years without any major problems if maintained well. Diesel cars on the other side have a life of about 5-8 years without any hiccups again with the condition that routine maintenance is done.

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4. Saving:

This is the most important factor to be considered. First, we take the CNG version of a car. The on-road cost per km in a CNG car costs from Rs. 2-2.5, i.e. in city roads a mileage of 17-19 km/kg.

And the same in petrol version costs from Rs. 5-7.5 i.e. a mileage of 11-13 km/litre. So if you compare both, your running cost in CNG is half or maybe even more than half of petrol.

The money that a person invests in the CNG kit should be recovered within 1.5-2 years.

So on that basis, if you need to recover a maximum of Rs. 60,000 in 2 years you need to use the car to the extent of 24,000 kilometers in 2 years, making it approximately 40 kilometers of travel every day.

After 2 years each and every time that you get your CNG refilled you’ll be saving money.

Now moving on to the diesel Version. The additional cost to be recovered in diesel is Rs. 1,30,000. And the mileage of a diesel car varies from 12-15 km/litre. Thus the cost per kilometer comes out to be Rs. 4 which is again less than the petrol version.

And just like the CNG version additional Rs. 1,30,000 should be recovered in 2.5 years maximum, making it approximately, 60 km of daily or about 43,000 kms in 2.5 years. After that, all you do is saving.

5. Environmental Factor: