Maruti Suzuki will soon launch the K-Series powered Swift. The Swift petrol is currently powered by a 1.3 litre engine derived from the Esteem. The G13B engine is not only outdated, it has poor driveability too. But Maruti is not replacing the engine for power or torque. April 2010 will see Bharat IV norms come into effect and Maruti’s G-Series engine won’t be Bharat IV compliant. Thus Maruti will copy-paste the engine into the Swift petrol from the recently launched Ritz.
The 1.2 litre K-Series engine will help in two ways. Better mileage and lesser duties. The Indian Government gives excise benefits to petrol cars having engine capacity less than 1200cc. So that will amount to 4% excise duty reduction on the Swift petrol, the Swift diesel already gets this benefit. Can we expect a reduction in the price of the Swift petrol? Your guess is as good as ours.
