Maruti Suzuki India launches Celerio diesel

Maruti Suzuki India launched the diesel version of its hatchback Celerio on Wednesday starting at Rs 4.65 lakh going up to 5.72 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The car will be powered by parent company Suzuki's first in-house diesel engine.

The car boasts of a 2-cylinder, DDiS 125cc engine mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox.

It will produce 47 bhp of power at 3,500 rpm and 125 Nm of torque at 2,000 rpm. The car has an ARAI-certified mileage of 27.62km/litre.

It beats the Dzire diesel that has an ARAI-certified mileage of 26.59km/litre.

"Maruti decided to start making a diesel version of the Celerio after a survey showed that 40 percent of its customers wanted a lower end diesel hatchback," said R S Kalsi, executive director, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki.

Since the launch of Celerio in February 2014, the car has sold 95,000 units and the demand is expected to increase with the launch of this car.

A third of the present demand has been for the automatic version.

When asked why Maruti did not bring out an automatic for the diesel version, Kalsi said, "It would have lead to too many variants and confusion."

The new car's engine will be manufactured at Maruti's Gurgaon plant. Maruti and its suppliers have invested Rs 900 crore towards development of this engine and it comes with over 97 percent localisation.

The car will be available in four variants, and the top version comes with ABS along with driver and front passenger airbags.

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