The Maruti Swift is a well known hatchback in our country selling in high volumes. More than 80 percent of the Swift sales are diesel variants for obvious reasons. The Fiat sourced 1.3-litre Multijet diesel engine is quite popular amongst us and extensively used in the product lineup of Maruti Suzuki. Now the Japanese automaker is chalking out plans to reduce their dependency on the Fiat sourced engine and instead come up with their own range of small capacity diesel engines. Team-BHP have caught the Swift, claiming the vehicle is carrying a new 1.2-litre turbo diesel engine under the hood.
The test mule featuring the new 1.2-litre diesel engine has also been caught featuring the start-stop system, keyless-entry, cruise control and similar features seen on the international spec Swift. While the new changes are expected to be launched on the facelift version in the coming months, the new diesel engine will take some time, as the development is at its initial stage. The 1.2-litre diesel unit could be used on the Ritz and Swift DZire as well but the Ertiga, YL1 sedan and SX4 replacement are expected to get the 1.4-litre diesel engine, which is currently under works.
Suzuki pays a good amount of royalty to Fiat for sourcing their Multijet diesel engine. Fiat India supplies around 1 lakh engines to Maruti Suzuki each year from its Ranjangaon plant. Considering the fact that diesel Marutis sell in high volumes, the Japanese automaker needs to put good effort in production of the new range of engines in order to have enough supply to keep the sales moving at a steady pace. With the in-house diesel technology, Suzuki can save money to equip the models with a long list of features. With a feature-rich product lineup, Maruti Suzuki can strengthen its products and stay ahead of its closest challenger, Hyundai.
Source – Team-BHP
