The country’s largest selling fuel efficient car maker Maruti Suzuki has stopped the production of its highest selling premium hatchback Maruti Swift. The reports have stated that this move is taken to make way for the new version of the Maruti Swift, which will be launched in late August or early September.
In past 20 years petrol prices have risen over 400% from Rs. 14.62 per litre to 63.73 per litre in Delhi. With rising fuel prices, one of the major factors these days considered in purchasing a car would the fuel efficiency and the Maruti Suzuki Swift, India’s top-selling premium car which has gone under complete transformation and it will launched next month will come as more fuel efficient. Maruti Suzuki Swift was selling more than 10,000 units a month.
The New Maruti Swift will come with 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litre diesel variants. It was reported that the new model, built on a slightly longer yet new platform, will be little extra roomy, lighter and return better mileage than the current generation Swift. Engineers have also achieved a substantial reduction in the overall weight of the car by replacing the metal fuel tank with a plastic tank. This will improve its fuel efficiency of the new swift by a little over 13 per cent.
This will be the first major face-lift for the Swift since it was launched six years ago. Pricing details of the new car has not been shared by the Maruti Suzuki India. The petrol variant will return a mileage of around 20 km per litre, as compared to 17.9 km per litre certified by the Automotive Research Association of India. Similarly, the diesel model will deliver around 23.8 km per litre, as against the existing 21 km a litre.
The report stated that for installing the plastic fuel tanks, Maruti Suzuki India has tied up with France’s Plastic Omnium, the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic fuel tanks as it was mentioned that plastic fuel tanks are usually 25-35 per cent lighter than the conventional metal tanks. Besides, these are corrosion-free, durable, non-explosive and easily recyclable. According to the report, New Maruti Swift may also offer a four-speed automatic transmission option in the petrol version, besides the regular five-speed manual.
The Swift which is available now in petrol, diesel and CNG versions and priced between Rs 3.9-5.5 lakh, sells close to 11,000 units every month. It has recorded a growth of 21 per cent last year selling over 140,000 units as against 116,000 units sold in the previous year. The Maruti Swift accounts for about 25 per cent of the hatchback segment, and compete with Hyundai i20, Volkswagen Polo, Skoda Fabia, Nissan Micra, Fiat Punto and Toyota Liva. It was also mentioned that Maruti is also preparing to launch a new Swift Dzire with the small boot, which will be cheaper and will probably hit the market by early 2012.
