Fuel prices used to oscillate up and down for several years. But of late they have held steady though crude prices have moved, albeit within a narrower band. Will that change now with crude prices jumping to $100 and beyond?
Indian car and motorbike buyers were fixated on fuel efficiency for decades. When Hero Honda CD 100 was launched in the mid-1980s, the original campaign presented many features of the bike: Japanese technology, great looks, four-stroke engine and unbelievable fuel efficiency. As the bikes were hitting the road the buzz was all around their incredible fuel efficiency. The firm and its then ad agency were quick to pivot to a fuel efficiency-focused campaign. The line ‘Fill It. Shut It. Forget It’ continues to resonate. I know of Hero Honda CD100 buyers saying they don’t remember when they last filled their tank. The line was a hit with customers.
In the car segment it was Maruti Suzuki that held the fuel efficiency pole position. Their television advertisement featuring a little turbaned kid playing with a toy Maruti 800 car and going on and on, on his father’s ample stomach, was probably one of the most remembered car ads. When the father complains ‘Why don’t you stop’, the kid replies ‘Papa, ki kara… Petrol khatam hi nahi honda’ (Papa, what to do? The petrol doesn’t seem to finish). Maruti and their ad agency created a series of ads on fuel efficiency that used the mileage-focused idiom ‘Kitna deti hai (how much does it give)’.
I suppose this is an idiom that comes from back in the days when dairy farmers used to ask each other how many litres of milk their cow gave.
Tata Motors capitalised on the running cost obsession by pioneering the small diesel car movement in India. Not only was diesel cheaper, thanks to government subsidies, but diesel engines are more fuel efficient too. Indigo CS even had a campaign that claimed that it is the most fuel efficient sedan in India. Maruti followed with its own hyper-efficient diesel car variants.
The last decade has seen the Indian consumer giving up on their passion for fuel efficiency. The pivot has led to the decline of the small fuel efficient hatchbacks and the 100 cc four-stroke motorbikes. The decline in hatchback sales was also due to rapid price increases that resulted from implementation of pollution norms like the BS-IV. The reset of goods and service tax rates has given small cars a new lease of life with Maruti, Hyundai and Tata renewing their small car efforts. Small cars are once again selling well. But what about their fuel efficiency?
Over the last 15 years, car consumers in India have given up fuel efficiency to embrace higher order benefits like style, electronics, automatic transmission, multiple air bags, etc (air conditioning, power steering, and anti-lock braking systems became standard two decades ago).
Brands that used to proudly announce their fuel efficiency in their ads are no longer doing that. You have to search for this information in the technical literature or a comparison website.
If car buyers gave up on fuel efficiency, two-wheeler owners too followed suit. While 100 cc bikes still sell well, the bigger models are growing faster. The fastest growing segment is probably the 150+cc bikes, which are definitely less fuel efficient. The same is true of gearless scooters, they too are not very fuel efficient.
If fuel prices once again start hitting the daily news, chances are car and two-wheeler buyers will probably look at fuel efficiency as a critical criteria when they evaluate their next purchase. The real beneficiary may in fact be electric vehicles which are slowly but steadily finding their place on Indian roads. There is the headache of setting up charging stations but in bigger cities, housing societies are setting up pay-and-use charging stations for residents.
If the government does not touch pump prices then it is likely that fuel efficiency may not rear its head as a key choice criteria. Or will it?
The writer is an advertising and branding veteran. His latest book Marketing Mixology looks at four essential skills for marketing success
 "Brands that used to announce their fuel efficiency in their ads are no longer doing that")