Maruti will be launching the Swift AMT variant around the festive season and will be priced around Rs. 45,000/- premium over the manual variants.
The inclusion of Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) has turned out to be a milestone for Maruti Suzuki and the Indian auto market in general. The idea of affordable automatic transmissions that are also fuel efficient have been greatly accepted by the masses as more and more cars are being equipped with the unit in recent times starting with the extremely successful Celerio, Alto K10 to the new Tata Nano GenX. Now, Maruti is working to introduce the extremely popular Swift hatchback with an AMT unit that is likely to hit the market around the festive season.
Maruti had earlier stated that it will be employing the AMT unit in more cars in the future and the idea of a Swift AMT emerges from the same strategy. The 5-speed automatic unit is said to be offered on both the 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litre diesel engines that will continue in the existing state of tune. The Swift diesel AMT version is likely to be priced at a Rs. 45,000/- premium over the manual variants and will also deliver an improved fuel efficiency of around 26 km/l. There is the possibility of Maruti giving the Swift slight upgrades on the AMT version with LED DRLs (seen on the European version) and chrome inserts. Initially only petrol AMT version is likely to launch.
Apart from the Swift AMT, Maruti Suzuki is readying up the Wagon R AMT that is scheduled to be launched in the following months and will come paired to the 1.0-litre K-Series petrol motor (same configuration as the Alto K10). The Indian automaker sources the AMT units from Magneti Marelli that is in the process of setting up a facility in Manesar and will commence operations later this year. Once the plant is operational, the supply of AMT units in comparison to the demand will see a major boost, which will finally end the long waiting period of Maruti’s AMT equipped products.
Source – Gaadiwaadi.com