SMOOTH RIDE

New Delhi, March 14: Maruti Udyog Ltd plans to introduce a new version of the Omni van this week, which will be powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Omni Cargo will have the existing 800-cc engine, and sport a sticker price between Rs 1.8 lakh and Rs 1.9 lakh against the existing Rs 2.2-2.3 lakh.

“The price reduction has been possible as the government has lowered special excise duty by 8 per cent to 16 per cent for liquefied petroleum gas-powered vehicles,” a source said, adding that the lowering of prices is expected to boost up sales.

The automaker, whose 54.2 per cent is owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, has a 50 per cent market share in the small and compact-sized hatchbacks led by Zen, Wagon R and Maruti 800.

“The factory-fitted liquefied petroleum gas kit is safe and legal and will save customers the risk of explosions and fires associated with unauthorised liquefied petroleum gas kits,” a company official said.

He said the running cost of liquefied petroleum gas as an auto fuel is on a par with compressed natural gas (CNG) and its availability would not be a problem as major oil retailers are setting up gas outlets across the country.

Although liquefied petroleum gas is an environmental-friendly fuel, automakers are yet to use it as an alternative fuel to petroleum. However, many commercial users have “retro-fitted” their vehicles with liquefied petroleum gas kits, which is unsafe and illegal.

“The introduction of this model would curb the illegal usage of liquefied petroleum gas,” he said.

Maruti, a former state-run firm, which listed last July after a blockbuster initial public offering of shares, currently retails 10 models with one of them imported from Japan as a fully built unit.

Though the automaker has a 47 per cent market share, it grew at a slower pace compared with industry sales during the year. While in the first ten months, Maruti sales rose 30.2 per cent to 3.77 lakh units, industry sales jumped 31.4 per cent.

Company officials, however, said the automaker expects to sell between 4.6 lakh and 4.7 lakh units in 2004-05.