We compiled a list of the mainstream cars highlighting price premium customers pay for a diesel engine over a petrol engine
Diesel engine cars are more expensive to buy than their petrol counterparts. You must have heard this statement a zillion times and it is true. Diesel engines do cost more than petrol engines to buy. But the cost to upgrade from petrol to diesel is different across vehicles. How much does each OEM upcharge for that sweet petrol-to-diesel upgrade? Let’s take a look.
Why are Diesel engines more expensive than Petrol engines?
The answer to this question is a combination of factors. On the surface, we can deduce that Diesel engines run hotter and they need thicker and more robust engine blocks. Diesel engines need more robust cooling and more robust NVH damping solutions. For mainstream cars, the primary cost factor boils down to added forced induction on Diesel engines in the form of Turbocharging.
All modern Diesel engines run on Turbochargers. Without a Turboa diesel engine almost feels like it makes Donkey power instead of Horse power. The cost of Turbocharging an engine is the primary price contributor towards Diesel engines when upgrading from a naturally aspirated petrol engine. Turbocharged engines have the efficiency edge over naturally aspirated and Supercharged engines, but are very complicated in design.
This is because Turbochargers need oil lines and coolant lines (feed and return), oil pressure regulation, intercoolers, multiple new sensors, tuning, wastegates, blow-off valves and a lot more. The upcharge also depends on the number of cylinders, engine architecture, performance, type of gearbox, added attributes like engine start/stop and more, between those engines.
For the sake of this comparison, we took vehicles that offer both petrol and diesel options within the mainstream segment. To keep this comparison between apples and apples, we took identical trim levels between engine options, mated to manual gearbox only. With automatic gearbox variants, diesel and petrol engines get different technologies and hence can’t be directly compared. Comparing the price of a Petrol DCT and Diesel AMT make less sense.
Sub 4m Vehicles
Starting with AltrozWe took XM Plus MT variant and the upcharge for Diesel over Petrol engine was Rs. 1.3 lakh. The upgrade was from a 1.2L NA 3-cyl Petrol to a 1.5L Turbo 4-cyl Diesel engine. Interestingly, Tata Motors charges Nexon owners the same Rs. 1.3 lakh when porting from a Turbo Petrol engine as we can see with Nexon’s Pure MT variants. The upcharge is Rs. 1.4 lakh with top-spec Fearless+ S trim.
An opposite trend can be seen with the newly launched Mahindra XUV3XO where lower trims command a Rs. 1.4 lakh upcharge, while it is just Rs. 1 lakh with higher trims. Both engines are turbocharged, though. Venue upcharge Rs. 1.32 lakh with lower trims packing a 1.2L 4-cyl NA Petrol engine and Rs. 85,000 with higher trims packing a 1.0L 3-cyl Turbo Petrol engine.
Kia Sonet’s base trims command an upcharge of Rs. 1.81 lakh and mid trims Rs. 1.45 lakh. Both prices are for the upgrade from a 1.2L 4-cyl NA Petrol to a 1.5L 4-cyl Turbo Diesel. It is to be noted that Kia and Hyundai share the same engines, but vary significantly where upcharging is concerned. The shift from Thar’s 2.0L Turbo Petrol to 2.2L Turbo Diesel commands the least upcharge in sub 4m segment at Rs. 70,000, as expected.
Compact, mid-size and large vehicles
In compact segment, only Creta and Seltos offer both Petrol and Diesel engines. The upcharge from a 1.5L 4-cyl NA Petrol to 1.5L 4-cyl Diesel is Rs. 1.56 lakh with Creta and Rs. 1.45 lakh with Seltos and the only addition is the Turbo setup. Both Creta and Seltos don’t offer the Turbo Petrol engine with manual gearbox option for a direct comparison with diesel engine for costs.
However, Alcazar does. So, Hyundai is charging Rs. 1.01 lakh when buyers upgrade from a 1.5L 4-cyl Turbo Petrol to a 1.5L 4-cyl Turbo Diesel engine. Interestingly, while Seltos commanded Rs. 1.45 lakh going from 1.5L NA Petrol to 1.5L Turbo Diesel, Carens commands Rs. 2.15 lakh with lower variants and Rs. 2.05 lakh with mid variants.
Depending on variants, MG is upcharging between Rs. 1.7 and Rs. 2 lakh to go from a 1.5L 4-cyl Turbo Petrol to a 2.0L 4-cyl Turbo Diesel. Interestingly, it is between Rs. 1.6 lakh and Rs. 1.9 lakh when it comes to Hector Plus. Just like the Thar, Mahindra’s upcharging appears very reasonable. With Scorpio N, the upcharge is Rs. 40,000 and with XUV700, it is Rs. 50,000. Toyota Fortuner buyers have to shell out Rs. 2.5 lakh of they choose the 2.8L 4-cyl Turbo Diesel over the 2.7L 4-cyl NA Petrol engine.
Note – All prices mentioned in this post are Ex-sh
