After a bunch of spy shots in the last few days, Suzuki has world premièred their all-new premium hatchback Baleno at the ongoing Frankfurt Motor Show which will be placed over Swift. While the car will be put on sale in Europe only later in Spring 2016, India will get the honour to be its first market with a launch in ‘Few Weeks’, as officially announced by the company. It will be manufactured in India and shipped to the world.
Baleno gets power from a new 1.0 Liter Boosterjet turbocharged petrol motor which churns out 111.5 PS of peak power and max torque of 170 Nm which is mated to a 5-Speed manual and 6 Speed automatic transmission options. India may or may not get this engine from the onset. A 1.2 litre dualjet engine will also be offered. Diesel lovers in India will have to satiate themselves with the familiar 1.3 litre multijet for now with a possible entry of their new 1.5 litre diesel in the near future.
Also present will be Suzuki’s new mild hybrid system which goes by the name SHVS. This was recently launched in India on the Ciaz diesel and is soon going to be available in a wide range of Maruti products. The design is understated and Suzuki has tried to play safe. The gently contoured surface has been given a new ‘liquid flow’ design theme. The tails lamps are also traditional-looking LED units.
Top end trims will be getting projector headlamps, LED daytime running lights. The wraparound windows get a blacked out A-pillar while the flowing body line culminates to a thin roof mounted spoiler. The instrumentation cluster gets silver accents to stand out from the black interiors. The controls get a warm reddish amber illumination.
A 7 inch HD LCD display with a Smartphone Linkage Audio Display forms the core of the infotainment system. It can also be connected with an iPhone via a USB cable for using Apple Car Play. The Baleno also boasts of a healthy boot space of 355 litres. It measures 3,995 mm in length, 1,745 mm in width and 1,470 mm in height.
What do you say – Will this new Maruti give a fight to i20?
