For the longest time, Maruti Suzuki had to depend on Fiat to power their diesel sipping vehicles. That is all set to change next month when an in-house developed 1.5-litre oil burner will make its debut with the Ciaz. The next vehicle in the queue will be the 2018 Ertiga which will be fitted with this new motor. This isn’t the first time though that Maruti has developed a diesel motor on their own. The honour goes to the 800cc, twin-cylinder engine which came fitted with the Celerio.
The new engine is rumoured to crank out nearly 95 bhp and 225 Nm of torque, a hike of 25 Nm and almost 7 bhp over the 1,248 cc DDIS motor. However, this new engine will be efficient too and is tipped to be rated for an efficiency figure of 25 kpl+. For now, this motor will be made available in a BS IV compliant form, to keep costs down. This will allow the car maker to price the Ciaz competitively against its rivals, as additional hardware to make the engine BS VI compliant will take the price further north by more than a lakh! The 1.3-litre diesel engine could still be offered on the lower variants of the sedan, while this new motor could be reserved for top-spec trims.
Whether this new engine will also come equipped with Maruti’s smart hybrid system is not known, yet. However, it will be interesting to see how it performs in comparison to the tried-n-tested Fiat sourced motor, which is also now known as the ‘National Engine’ for being so popular. Maruti’s first attempt at building a diesel engine on their own didn’t meet much success due to its unrefined nature. We hope that issue has been addressed for this new motor, along with factors like driveability and performance. We’ll bring you more updates about this development along with all the information once the new engine makes its debut. Until then, stay tuned for more from the Indian auto space.