Suzuki has unveiled the Celerio at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The Suzuki Celerio is slightly different than the Maruti Celerio but the changes are quite minuscule and both cars are manufactured in Manesar, India. The Suzuki Celerio is a small city car which replaces the Alto and Splash (Ritz) in the European market (it has replaced the A-Star and Zen Estilo in India). The Suzuki Celerio will compete with the second generation Hyundai i10 (Grand i10 in India) and the Toyota Aygo as well. It will also face competition from the Dacia Sandero which is known for being a very roomy car.
The Celerio made its global debut at the 2014 Auto Expo while in Suzuki guise, the Geneva Motor Show is its international premiere. Power comes in from the same 1.0-litre K-Series engine which Maruti calls K-Next in India while Suzuki chose the K10C name (68 PS and 90 Nm). Unlike in India where the Celerio doesn’t get Engine Auto Stop Start, Suzuki has given the vehicle this feature for reduced CO2 emissions which stand at just 85 g/km. The European Celerio also gets the AMT Auto Gear Shift which the company claims gives the same mileage as a manual.
The difference between the Indian and European Celerio is immediately apparent, the global model gets bigger wheels and looks much better too. The interiors get an all black treatment while we in India get a dual-tone black and beige cabin. Suzuki will commence sales of the Celerio in Europe by the end of the year. The car will go to Euro NCAP later in the year for safety ratings and we expect it to get 4-stars. However don’t mistake the Indian model to be as safe as the European model has much better active and passive safety features.
