The A-Star in India is the global Alto and the car is somewhat a tepid seller in India, Suzuki’s one of the major markets. But the company is looking to make the car irrestible in its next generation by plonking in an engine that would give it a fuel efficiency of 33 kmpl and in the segment which is governed by fuel efficiencies, such a high figure is surely a deal breaker.
The next gen A-Star will be signifacntly lighter in terms of weight than the outgoing model when introduced in Japan later this year. A 3-cylinder, 660cc R06A peetrol motor would be doing the duty in the car and will churn out 52 BHP coupled with a peak torque of 63 NM. The A-Star will use lighter weight parts to complement the engine to deliver such fuel efficiency figures.
The 2014 Suzuki A-Star might just get the brake energy regeneration and start/stop technology to boost the fuel efficiency. It would reach the Indian shore by sometime next year. The car will become bigger in size to liberate more space for the passengers. And we don’t expect the start/stop technology to make its way to the A-Star as well.
The A-Star does not sell very well in the country because its present against the tallboy sibling, Wagon R which costs almost the same and offers space that would put some of the B-segment hatches to shame. But we think that the 660cc motor would not really justify the price tag it might command so we expect a engine that displaces more and returns a fuel efficiency good enough to woo the buyers.
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