Fiat’s 1.5 Liter Diesel Engine which was to power a lot of Maruti and Tata cars is no more in the works. We tell you why!
Fiat India is at present the largest supplier of diesel engines in the country with its 1.3 litre Multijet unit being used in 19 cars from 5 different manufacturers – one of them being the country’s largest car maker Maruti. In fact it would not be wrong to say that Fiat India exists thanks to its engine sales otherwise 500-1000 cars a month is nothing for one of the oldest manufacturer in India.
Fiat already has the 1.6 Liter Multijet diesel engine, which has debuted on the Maruti S-Cross recently, however, it exceeds the displacement limit set for the cars to be considered in the ‘small’ car category which attracts the lowest 12 percent excise duties. For cars to be considered under the ‘Small 12 %’ definition, it must have an engine not exceeding 1.2 liters for petrol and 1.5 liters for diesel and hence you see the introduction of a lot of downsized motors (often from the existing 1.6 liter engines).
On a similar track, Fiat India was developing a 1.5 liter Multijet mill which would have been a downsized version of the 1.6 litre motor. This engine was expected to do duty on a lot of cars in India, most of them being from non-Fiat brands and obviously Maruti was expected to be the largest consumer, followed by Tata.
However, as per an article on Autocar India the Italian manufacturer has put on hold its plans to work on the said engine. The reason is simple – both Tata and Maruti are already developing their indigenous 1.5 liter diesel engines for self reliance.
While Maruti is going to get the new engine from Suzuki which is working on the engine for its global models, Tata’s indigenous mill is expected to hit the market sometime next year. Naturally, Fiat doesn’t find it sensible to invest too much on its manufacturing.
Please bring it to India.