Maruti unfolds diesel engine plans for Wagon R, Alto

With the ever-increasing demand of diesel vehicles and slumping demand of petrol vehicles, the figures of passenger market share of various car-makers in the country have been like a sine wave. Owing to the shift in the sentiments of buyers, many car-makers have bled badly and many have profited largely. Due to the absence of a diesel engine in its portfolio, Maruti Suzuki India had to turn to Fiat and is now sourcing the highly applauded Fiat’s MultiJet diesel engine for some of its major models. Despite selling myriad diesel cars, Maruti’s share in the market has constantly descended; the major reason for this is the absence of diesel variants of its cars Alto, Wagon R and EECO which are suffering huge sales blows from the rivals.

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Maruti had earlier attempted to introduce alternative fuel options like LPG/CNG to pull in volumes, but the government was not so supportive of it. And since, the available MultiJet diesel engine is way too big for these small cars, the need of the hour for Maruti is to come up with a small diesel engine that can reduce the company’s dependence on Fiat. As reported earlier, Maruti is investing Rs. 900 crore in the development of a diesel engine plant at Rohtak, in Haryana. The company wishes to build a 1-liter three cylinder diesel engine as soon as possible that can power the Alto and Wagon R. Maruti has another way to power these cars with diesel engines which is the sourcing of 1-liter XDSE Smartech Engine from General Motors India.

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Developed at the company’s Bangalore Powertrain facility, this Smartech engine is not very different from Fiat’s MultiJet engine as it is build on the same principles but with one less cylinder. The smartech engine is currently powering the Chevrolet Beat diesel and is well suited to power Maruti Wagon R, this way MSI would be saved from building a smaller diesel engine right from the beginning. Elsewhere, Tata Motors is working on a new diesel engine for Nano that could be a possible threat for Maruti Alto. This new engine is expected to deliver a fuel economy of 35-40 kmpl in the ARAI test.

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