Maruti Suzuki has been the leader in the mass market passenger vehicle segment in India for quite some time now. No other manufacturer has been able to shake them from that position because they have an understanding of the Indian market and its needs like no other, and Indians in general, have a good will towards the brand. Now Maruti Suzuki intends to use this to their advantage as they try to enter the LCV (light commercial vehicle) segment with their new product, codenamed Y9T.
Maruti Y9T LCV (spied) – FrontView
Maruti Suzuki had earlier announced that they will be entering the lucrative LCV segment, a segment which, in the last five year has grown 20%, which Maruti Suzuki intends to take advantage of.
The vehicle that Maruti Suzuki will be launching first in the segment has been codenamed Y9T, and will be a very significant one for Maruti Suzuki. The Y9T will take the Tata Ace head-on, as competition and the reason why it is so very important is that the very first indigenously developed diesel engine from Maruti Suzuki will do duty in the Y9T.
Till date, all diesel variants of Maruti Suzuki cars have used the 1.3 liter DDiS turbo-diesel engine under license from Fiat, and this was costing quite a lot for Maruti Suzuki, and this in turn forced them to develop their own range of diesels. The first diesel they have developed is an 800cc twin cylinder turbo-diesel and the Y9T will be a proving ground for the new engine.
The BIG news is that, a fully camouflaged LCV was spotted testing in the National Capital Region, and this is the one which we think is the upcoming LCV from Maruti Suzuki. Though we aren’t sure about it, we can come to this conclusion as, the steel wheels seen on the test mule are the exact same wheels seen on the Suzuki carry, which is an LCV manufactured by Suzuki and is on-sale in Europe and in Japan. The other reason for us to think so is that, the test mule carried temporary registration plates from Haryana, and till date, all the test mules of Maruti Suzuki too have been carrying the temporary registration from the same state.
Maruti Y9T LCV (spied) – RearView
The dimensions of the test mule too were very similar to that of the Suzuki carry, and it will be based on the very same platform too (the Maruti Suzuki Eeco too, is based on the same platform).
The Y9T will compete with the segment bestseller, the Tata Ace and is expected to be priced at around Rs. 4 lakh for the diesel variant and between Rs. 4.5 – 5 lakhs for the CNG variant. The CNG variant will be powered by a 1.2 liter engine.
Check out more pictures, after a jump.
Also see – MSIL gets approval from the board in order to manufacture LCV
Maruti’s upcoming LCV to be powered by Fiat’s 1.3-Litre Multijet diesel engine
2008 Suzuki Carry Truck (Japan) – FrontView
2008 Suzuki Carry Truck (Japan) – RearView
Source – MotorBash
