The growth in diesel demand has been recorded the lowest in the financial year 2024-25 ending March 31 after Kovid epidemic. According to the provisional data released on Monday by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Oil, 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025) Diesel consumption in the financial year increased by 2 percent to 91.4 million tonnes. According to the news of PTI, the economy has been reported to be slow growing and move towards clean fuel behind the reduction in demand.
Electric vehicles are becoming a big reason
According to the news, the increase in the demand for diesel used to run trucks and agricultural machinery in 2024-25 was 4.3 percent in the last financial year and 12.1 percent in 2022-23. The data states that diesel is about 40 percent in the oil used in India. Along with the data, it has also been reported that electric vehicles (EV) are starting to give a new look to the demand for diesel in India. It is also to be understood here that the increase in demand shows economic activities in the country. It is said that diesel still operates three-fourths of India’s transport sector, but the growth is slowing down due to electrical vehicle shift.
Effect of electric vehicles in public transport
Industry officials said that slow consumption growth compared to petrol was mainly due to commercial EV shift. Electric buses are being rapidly adopted in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Electric auto-rickshaws (e-rickshaws) have become prominent in many Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Their effect is that the use of diesel in urban public transport is directly decreasing. Also, big e-commerce companies are paying attention to electric vehicles as delivery vehicles. Diesel -powered vans and light commercial vehicles are affected due to such changes, reducing the demand in the logistics sector.
Consumption of petrol and jet fuel
Petrol consumption rose by 7.5 percent to 40 million tonnes, while LPG demand increased by 5.6 percent to 31.32 million tonnes. Jet fuel consumption increased by about 9 percent to about 9 million tonnes in 2024-25. The demand for Nephtha used as fuel in industries declined by 4.8 percent to 13.15 million tonnes, while fuel oil consumption declined by about one percent to 6.45 million tonnes.
Overall, the consumption of petroleum production in India increased by 21 percent to 239.171 million tonnes. This increase was slower by 5 percent in 2023-24, 10.6 percent last year and 3.8 percent in 2021-22. If the two years affected by the Kovid affected of 2019-20 and 2020-21 are left in 2024-25, the increase in oil consumption will be the slowest in a decade.
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