The upcoming Maruti Celerio has managed to create a lot of interest amongst all those who are following the Indian automotive scene. Maruti Suzuki will unveil the vehicle officially at the 2014 Auto Expo in February. The Celerio will replace the A-Star and Estilo and will compete with the Honda Brio, Ford Figo and Chevrolet Beat. We are expecting the Celerio to be priced between Rs. 4.6-6.5 lakhs (on-road, Mumbai) and knowing Maruti, we know that the manufacturer won’t go wrong with the pricing. The Maruti Celerio also has a claimed fuel efficiency of 23.1 km/l with the Automated Manual Transmission.
The Maruti Celerio’s official website has now gone live but doesn’t contain any pictures of the vehicle since it has not been launched yet. The website shows some of the unique features that will be available in the Celerio like EZ Drive, EZ Technology, EZ Style, EZ Space and EZ Gizmos. EZ Drive features the Celerio’s new Automated Manual Transmission which will make driving in city traffic a breeze. EZ Technology talks about the K-Next engine which has a drive-by-wire feature which helps in generating more torque and extracting a good amount of fuel efficiency.
EZ Style talks about the Celerio’s CICO (curve-in curve-out) styling as well as the vehicle’s aerodynamics and looks which give out a good road presence. EZ Space talks about the good amount of space the vehicle offers. The interiors are designed to generate more headroom and leg space for passengers and Maruti calls it XpanDesign. The interiors feature 15 utility spaces to store bottles, mobile phones, etc. as well as a dual-tone colour scheme. The boot offers 235-litres of luggage space. EZ Gizmos tells us about the goodies that the Celerio will come loaded with – stereo with Bluetooth and phone pairing along with steering-mounted audio controls.
Powering the Maruti Celerio is the same 1.0-litre K10 engine which powers the WagonR. 5 variants of the Celerio will be offered – LXi, VXi, ZXi (2 variants with the clutch-less model – LXi and VXi) The car might be positioned against the Grand i10 but on paper alone, it can’t compete with Hyundai’s latest offering. The Celerio will replace the Alto (which is the Indian A-Star) and the Splash (which is called Ritz in India) in the global markets. A diesel engine is being developed by Suzuki for its small cars which will also power the Celerio by the end of this year.
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