Maruti Suzuki is one such manufacturer who has benefited a lot from Fiat’s diesel technology. Fiat’s Multijet Diesel powered SX4, Ritz, Dzire and Swift are churning out good numbers. However, the smaller cars such as the A-Star, Wagon R and Estilo are not offered in a diesel variant because there is no 1L diesel engine under Maruti’s sleeve currently.
Just few months back, Chevrolet India launched their Chevrolet Beat Diesel small car, which is one of the most fuel efficient small passenger cars in India. The sales of Beat Diesel speak for themselves as the running cost of a small diesel car is almost one third compared to same segment of petrol car.
Now our good friends at MotorBeam as reported that, Maruti Suzuki India may launch a diesel version of Maruti Wagon R in India. The Wagon R Diesel may be powered 3-cylinder variant of the 4-cylinder, 1.3-litre engine that is powering the Ritz and the Swift making it around 970 cc. Power output could be around 58 PS with a healthy torque figure of about 150 Nm. The same engine will make its way into other small Maruti cars namely A-Star and Estilo, helping the company maintain its market share.
Engine Manufacturing Capacity is not particularly going to be a problem because the plant in Haryana, a joint venture (JV) between Suzuki and Maruti, can produce 240,000 diesel engines per year. MSIL plans to increase the capacity to 300,000 engines per annum. Maruti will also source engines from Tata-Fiat’s Ranjangoan facility where the compact engine could be produced.
Also see – WagonR sales cross 1-mn units mark in 12 years
Source – MotorBeam
