After discontinuing its diesel range last year, Maruti Suzuki is now gearing up to extend its CNG product line-up in the Indian market. As of now, the brand has six CNG cars in its passenger vehicle portfolio, including Alto, S-Presso, Ecco, Celerio, WagonR, and Ertiga. Maruti will soon introduce the Dzire sub-4m sedan with a factory-fitting CNG kit. In fact, the Indo-Japanese maker has already started its road testing in the country.
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At present, Maruti Dzire's direct rival Hyundai Aura is being offered with a factory-fitted CNG kit, alongside the petrol and diesel engine options. So, introducing Dzire CNG will help the brand to position it more strongly against the Korean offering. Also, it will give the brand a certain advantage in these difficult times when conventional fuel rates are constantly fluctuating.
Some media reports are also suggesting that Maruti is planning to produce around 2.5 lakh CNG cars in this financial year. There are also rumors that Tata Motors will also equip its cars with factory-fitted CNG kits. So we can expect to see a CNG version of the Tigor sedan in the near future as well.
Powering the Dzire CNG will continue to be the existing 1.2-litre petrol engine that generates 90PS/113. However, the engine output will surely fall to some extent with CNG fuel. Also, it is unlikely to get an AMT transmission option as the petrol-only variants.
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As of now, the Maruti Suzuki Dzire is offered in four trims: LXi, VXi, ZXi, and ZXi+. The CNG powertrain is likely to be restricted to entry-level variants only. The Dzire petrol is claimed to deliver a fuel efficiency of 23.26kmpl with the manual gearbox and 24.12kmpl with the AMT. Expect the Dzire CNG to offer a range of at least 26-28km per kilogram of CNG consumption.
We reckon the Dzire CNG variants will demand a premium of around Rs 80,000 over their corresponding petrol-only trims.
