Petrol, diesel 3Ws needed due to patchy CNG coverage: Piaggio CMD
Pune: The CMD of the automaker Piaggio India, Diego Graffi, said in an interaction with TOI that while the firm is heavily invested in clean mobility, such as EVs and CNG-powered vehicles, it will keep petrol and diesel variants for the Indian market, due to a web of factors, such as CNG availability and range issues.
“We are planning improvements in the performance of electric vehicles in the passenger segment, especially when it comes to range, while we already have a significant EV presence in the cargo sector. We will keep our petrol and diesel inventory and continue to manufacture them, because CNG is available only in around 50% of districts in India, while that figure is expected to reach 80 to 85% in the next few years,” Graffi said.
Graffi was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the Ape NXT+ range of auto-rickshaws, which has been made available in petrol, LPG, as well as CNG variants. He added that prices for the range have been kept competitive, in light of still-recovering demand for both passenger and commercial three-wheelers.
