With less money to spend, car buyers are eyeing more for smaller cars and petrol variants instead of diesel versions.

Maruti Suzuki, for instance, has seen a 10% year-on-year increase in enquiries and bookings for small cars/hatchbacks.

“The 30-day data from mid-May shows that 65% of bookings and enquiries we have received are in the small car category, up from 55% last year. Of course, we are not yet fully ramped up and there are markets that are still under lockdown. But from bookings and enquiries, it seems the small car shift has started happening,” said Maruti Suzuki executive director (marketing & sales) Shashank Srivastava.

Mahindra & Mahindra is seeing demand shift away from diesel to petrol. “Although M&M is predominantly a diesel manufacturer, we are seeing very good demand for the petrol version of the XUV300 even from rural markets,” said Nikunj Sanghi, who runs Mahindra dealership JS FourWheel Motors.

Another factor pushing sales of petrol vehicles is that government departments are now buying petrol rather than diesel versions.

Hyundai Motor India, dealers say, has seen its petrol share go up from 73% in 2019 to 75% in 2020, while diesel has seen a commensurate drop. This, despite the fact that the company’s SUV contribution to total sales has gone up from 40% in January-February to 50% in the April-June period, riding on the recently relaunched Creta. Hyundai Motor India director (sales, marketing & service) Tarun Garg said, “Creta bookings are at 30,000-plus level.”