Maruti Suzuki has a real aggressive product onslaught lined up for 2015. While they have a lot of new products in pipeline, the company is also working on their existing models in order to make them more effective.
Among them is the country’s largest selling compact sedan, Dzire, which we all know is getting a facelift/refresh soon.
While the update will mostly have minor cosmetic changes apart from a few feature additions, the biggest change may be the introduction of Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) on the new version. As per a report on Economic Times, Maruti is considering bringing the AMT gearbox in their high selling Dzire.
The success of AMT in the Celerio, launched earlier this year, has made Maruti very confident that AMT is here to stay in India. The convenience of almost an automatic transmission with the fuel efficiency similar to that of a manual transmission is definitely a boon in crowded city traffic.
The Dzire with clutchless AMT may help the company gain a lot more volumes and face the stiff competition from Mobilio and Lodgy. Apart from Dzire, the company is also planning to introduce AMT in the small car WagonR (although this might be limited only to the more premium Stingray variant) and the 7 seater MPV, Ertiga.
There were reports that Maruti Suzuki may also consider launching an AMT version of Swift, however, we await such a version from the company till now. The Dzire will be getting the AMT only in the petrol variant as the company is not working on any diesel powertrain with an AMT. Tata Motor’s Zest and upcoming hatch Bolt will be the only two diesel cars in India to have an AMT, at least for sometime.
Launch of Dzire AMT is scheduled for sometime in 2015, possibly towards the first few months. However, the question remains – considering that Maruti Suzuki is not able to cater to the demand of the AMT versions of Celerio and the recently launched Alto K10, how is the company planning to manage with more new models…? So, does that hint that Magnetti Marelli, the original supplier of AMT gearboxes to Maruti Suzuki, will be able to set local shop and be fully functional in time..?
Pictures of Dzire facelift, credit Gaadiwaadi.com
