kolkata after a twoyear dieselpowered cruise petrol cars are back on the highoctane drive car buyers have snapped out of the diesel daze following the phased decontrol of diesel that has bridged the price between petrol and diesel to rs 1350 the resultant shift back to petrol has triggered alarm in the industry as maruti suzuki hyundai honda general motors ford volkswagen and renaultnissan have together invested over rs 10000 crore into diesel plants in the past couple of years coming at a time when car sales have nosedived the switch in fuel preference will hit companies hard though diesel cars will still be in demand for customers that clock the mileage auto companies acknowledge that estimates on recovery of investment in diesel powertrains will go haywire general motors india vicepresident vehicle sales service marketing rajesh singh admitted the paradigm shift in fuel would take a toll on players particularly those that were heavily reliant on diesel this switch to petrol is a major shift companies that have flexible engine plants will adapt to the change others will find the going tough said singh that apart companies like maruti suzuki and hyundai that have traditionally had a powerpacked petrol portfolio will gain an edge over others though the two companies too were driving on diesel turbocharge for the past couple of years the shift to gasoline will be a lot smoother than others gm had a bull run with the diesel beat powered by the mini onelitre powertrain till last year the ratio of beat diesel to its petrol version was 8515 in the past four months petrol sales have doubled and the ratio now stands 7030 ford seems to have timed the entry of its superefficient onelitre ecoboost petrol engine 189 kmpl certified by arai for ecosport to perfection just gm had done with the onelitre diesel engine for beat three years ago sales at tata motors that has a strong diesel portfolio are on a cataclysmic freefall it has petrol cars as do other auto firms but none can match maruti suzukis high mileage at least in customer perception courtesy the kitna deti hai audiovisual ad campaign but for the negative growth in the industry most auto companies would have stopped the deep discounts on petrol cars that are now attracting higher enquiries companies are expected to slash the premium on diesel cars to keep customers interested at present diesel variants cost rs 80000110000 more than petrol and that isnt costeffective for city driving any diesel customer looks at a payback period of threefour years it was attractive when there was a huge price gulf but now that the difference has narrowed and the payback period has been pushed beyond five years it will be difficult to convince customers because people now change cars every five years explained a sales executive at a hyundai dealership maruti suzuki chief operating officer marketing and sales mayank pareek said the wait period of diesel cars had disappeared we have not