So, it is clearly understood that Maruti Suzuki, after the introduction of Ciaz Hybrid SHVS, which was spied at a dealership recently, will discontinue the current Ciaz diesel. With the new hybrid technology implemented on the 1.3 liter DDIS diesel engine, a report at ETAuto claims that, Ciaz may churn out a whooping 28 kmpl setting a new precedent in terms of fuel efficiency.
Hybrid diesel powertrain will be costlier to make since the technology is imported but there will be marginal price hike of about Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 over the existing diesel-only model. This is due to the incentives provided by the government under the FAME policy to promote use of environment-friendly technologies. With this Ciaz hybrid will be get the lower 12.5 percent subsidy and an additional extension of upto Rs 13,000 which will save about Rs 1 Lakh on the price of the car.
This will NOT be a complete hybrid system but at the same time we expect it to be more than the ‘Micro-Hybrid’ of Mahindra which switches off the ignition when the vehicle is idle for a preset period and switches it back on when the clutch pedal is pressed, resulting in fuel savings which leads to pollution reduction etc.
If this report is true, than at 28 kmpl, Ciaz will again claw back to regain the title of India’s most fuel efficient car beating its own sibling Celerio diesel (27.62 kmpl), which is a much smaller and cheaper four wheeler. Expect Maruti to launch it very soon…
