Following establishment of its leadership in the A, B and C-segment cars in India, Maruti Suzuki is now looking aggressively at the D-segment by planning to launch the Kizashi by 2010-end. The Kizashi will be the first all-wheel drive sedan in the luxury D-segment. However, there is a slight change in plans since parent Suzuki Motor Co is now preferring smaller vehicles for global auto markets and is therefore doing away with the monstrous 3.5 litre engine. Instead, Maruti is likely to go in for a 2-litre petrol engine, though nothing seems finalized yet.
“The market has changed and Suzuki has now stopped developing such big engines. Now they are developing a 2 litre engine,” Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director Shinzo Nakanishi said. “If SMC launches Kizashi this year in Japan we will think of bringing it in India. Otherwise, SX4 will be our biggest car here,” he added.
Pricing and other details are still not available, but it is widely believed the car would be priced at around Rs. 10 lakh price bracket and would be rolled out from MSIL’s state-of-the-art-facility in Manesar. It would be pitted against Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis, Chevrolet Optra, Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Jetta. Industry sources have revealed that Maruti engineers have already began working on Kizashi to take it from the concept stage to the production platform.The 2-litre engined Kizashi would be the biggest car in Suzuki’s passenger car portfolio and the company would not go beyond that engine capacity.