No Maruti Suzuki diesel cars in India from April 2020
Maruti Suzuki’s diesel engines will not be upgraded to meet the upcoming stringent emission norms.
It was reported that Maruti Suzuki could go petrol only in the Indian market. Now, the company has officially announced that it will phase out all of its diesel cars starting April 2020. The announcement comes on the back of the upcoming BSVI emission norms from April 1, 2020. Maruti Suzuki’s diesel engines will not be upgraded to meet the upcoming stringent emission norms.
Maruti Suzuki has two diesel engine options in India – the tried & tested 1.3-litre, Fiat-sourced MultiJet and the in-house developed 1.5-litre, four-cylinder DDiS engine that recently debuted in the Ciaz. It is now confirmed that there will be no Maruti diesel cars on sale by April next year. The company is currently a wide range of cars with diesel cars in India. Maruti Suzuki is selling the diesel powered Swift, Dzire, Baleno, Ertiga, Ciaz, S-Cross and the popular Vitara Brezza. In fact, diesel account for over 30 percent of the Maruti Suzuki sales which is huge. Also See – Maruti Swift to Volkswagen Polo – popular cars to go petrol only
It is expected that Maruti Suzuki’s in-house developed 1.5-litre diesel engine could continue on sale in the future. The Indo-Japanese brand has invested over 1000 crore to develop the new 1.5-litre diesel engine. The company would be assessing the 10 year lifecyle costs of the engine before upgrading it to meet the BSVI emission norms. Adding to it, the engine will also have to be upgraded to meet the super-stringent Rear Driving Emissions regulations set to come into effect by 2023. This will further increase the cost of diesel cars in India.
Maruti Suzuki’s bigger cars including Ciaz, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza and the next-gen Vitara (Hyundai Creta Rival) could require diesel engine option. The company will also look at the price gap between the petrol and diesel cars in India. If the price gap between the two further increase, the demand for diesel cars will further go down.
