Apart from launching three new vehicles this year, Maruti Suzuki will also update the Eeco and Ritz models. The vehicles are likely to get cosmetic revisions only.
Maruti Suzuki is India’s largest automaker. The company sells mostly hatchbacks in the country with a couple of vans and a sedan thrown in. Maruti has 14 vehicles in its portfolio and the company is set to launch the new S-Cross, YRA premium hatchback and the Super Carry LCV in India in 2015. The company is also looking forward to updating six of its models including the Celerio, DZire, Ertiga, Eeco, Swift and Ritz this year. We already know what all changes will be made to the Celerio, DZire, Ertiga and Swift but what got us interested is the fact that the Ritz and Eeco too will be updated.
The Maruti Ritz was sold globally as the Suzuki Splash. The Splash got replaced by the Celerio and production of the vehicle stopped. But knowing Maruti, the company decided against discontinuing the Ritz in India and it is being sold alongside the Celerio, which is marginally cheaper too. Maruti gave the Ritz a mid-life facelift a couple of years back and now the Ritz is set to receive another update. We’re guessing that the manufacturer will give it a slight cosmetic change on the outside and a couple of feature additions on the inside. The Ritz facelift will not receive any mechanical changes and it will use the same 1.2-litre and 1.3-litre petrol and diesel engines respectively. The Maruti Ritz facelift will be launched in December.
The Maruti Eeco is a very basic van that is preferred mostly by the commercial segment, though there are some private buyers too. It is a cheap and spartan 7-seater and it misses out on luxury features, safety and even the slightest amount of snob value. The Eeco recently got countered by the relatively better Datsun GO+ and to retaliate, Maruti will be launching an updated Eeco in September. Highly likely that the boring exteriors and interiors will be redesigned but we don’t think Maruti will add a diesel engine to the van since it already comes with an economical CNG variant.
