Maruti Suzuki has been working on developing an all new diesel engine that will power the company’s first light commercial vehicle codenamed Y9T that will go on sale in 2015. The new 800cc engine however is being developed to adapt to different models across Maruti’s portfolio and one of the first models to get the new diesel engine will be the Celerio hatchback. The company confirmed that the Y9T LCV and the Celerio will be powered by the new diesel engine by the end of this fiscal 2014-15. The Celerio diesel will thus see a launch in the first quarter of 2015.
The success of Maruti Suzuki’s Celerio has been phenomenal, clocking around 40,000 bookings in just three months of launch. The company is already in the process of doubling up production capacity of the Celerio to 10,000 units a month from the current 5000 units. The Celerio’s success comes from the inclusion of the automated manual transmission (AMT) that offers the convenience of driving an automatic, especially in our traffic conditions.
Maruti is also working on introducing the ZXi trim of the AMT version with all the bells and whistles which include audio system with Bluetooth telephony, keyless entry, steering mounted audio controls, front airbags, rear window wiper and washer, all of which are currently available on the manual ZXi variant. The Celerio is powered by the 1.0-litre K-Series engine producing 68 PS and 90 Nm of torque, with a claimed fuel efficiency of 23.1 km/l on manual and AMT variants.
While the specifications of the new 800cc diesel engine are not known as yet, the engine is being developed to offer high fuel efficiency and good low-end torque for optimum performance. We do expect Maruti to offer the AMT gearbox on the diesel variant as well. The Celerio diesel will be competing with the Beat diesel and Tata’s upcoming new small car that will replace the Indica eV2 hatchback in the segment in 2015. The Celerio diesel is expected to be priced at a Rs. 80,000/- premium over the petrol version. Prices for the petrol model starts at Rs. 3.76 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).
