The Green Detour

The government may be pushing for EVs, but CNG has emerged as the most credible competitor to petrol in the car segment

- • Rakshit Kumar

On a brisk December afternoon, two attendants at a compressed natural gas (CNG) station near Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station struggle to clear a snaking line of cars and autorickshaws. Asked how many vehicles they fill in a day, one shrugs: “Over 100, 200, maybe 300. You lose count.”

Among those waiting, 27-year-old cab driver Harish Kumar has already spent 30 minutes in the queue, but says this is better than the evening rush. He is among the lakhs of vehicle owners who bought a CNG-powered four-wheeler last year and now endure long waits to refill their cars, a process that should take just 2–4 minutes. This chaos is in sharp contrast to the tranquillity at the nearby Sabz Burj Chowk EV charging station, whose sustainability mandate now extends to providing shelter to a homeless family.

A Sudden Spurt

The difference in the ambience of the two filling stations is also a reflection of the state of two markets—the still niche EVs contrasted with the rapid rise of CNG vehicles. However, the popularity of CNG cars is not quite as old as it may seem from the hustle and bustle of the filling station.

As recently as two years ago (2022-23), CNG vehicles used to make up for 20% of the total sales of India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki. However, by 2024–25, it rose to 33%. Similarly, rival Tata's CNG share soared from 3% in 2021–22, even lower than its EV share then, to 25% in 2024–25—well clear of its EV sales. For the industry as a whole, the share of CNG cars has almost doubled to 19.3% from about 10% in the same period, and the sales of CNG four-wheelers have increased each fiscal since 2019–20—going from 1.8 lakh units to 4.8 lakh last year, even during the two years when total four-wheeler sales fell.