Maruti Suzuki to develop two new diesel engines for India

Maruti Suzuki has been India's largest car maker ever since the company came into existence. The company had been riding high on the success of its petrol-only portfolio (barring the exception of the Peugeot-sourced TUD5 diesel engines for the Zen and Esteem in 1998). But the Indian affinity to diesel cars was something which Maruti couldn't ignore for long. A modern day diesel engine was something which Maruti lacked in its lineup and something which even parent company Suzuki did not have an answer to. However, globally Suzuki had a joint venture with Fiat, the likes of which trickled down to India and ended up with Maruti sourcing the 1.3l Multijet engine from the Italian company. This particular diesel engine is now the bread and butter for Maruti in India and Suzuki abroad. The 1.3l Multijet engine has been widely used in India across brands and in many forms by the likes of Tata, General Motors, Fiat and Premier. However Maruti always ended up extracting the best out of the Multijet engines, be it fuel efficiency or performance. Now, the Indian manufacturer has realised that its time that they started making diesel engines in-house and this is how they plan to do it.

Japanese parent company Suzuki is developing two new diesel engines for Maruti. The engines, said to be in the capacity of 1- and 1.4-litres are being developed in Japan and could be ready for use as early as 2014. The aforementioned engine capacities mean that Maruti can now power it's entry level cars like the Alto, Estilo and Wagon R with 1.0-litre diesel engines to take on competition like Chevrolet Beat and Tata Indica. It will also work in Maruti's favour considering that they wouldn't have to cough up the royalty that they currently pay to Fiat for using the Multijet engines. This in turn could mean that the future diesel engined cars from the Maruti stables will be priced very competitively or should we say would fall in the budget bracket of many aspiring car buyers. As it is, the agreement with Fiat for the Multijet engines stands good till 2015. The contract which was signed in 2012 says that Fiat will supply Maruti with one lakh engines till 2015. Who knows, Maruti may even end up showing their first in-house diesel engine at the Auto Expo 2014?