Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) is launching a 1.5-litre petrol engine fitted in its mid-size sedan Ciaz, in hybrid version, as early as August, marking the rollout of a bigger engine size for its products.

Sources close to the development told BusinessLine that the engine is being developed by Suzuki Motor Corporation (Japan) and manufactured here.

The engines will be fitted into other products such as the Baleno, Vitara Brezza and even the Eritga at a later date.

“The company will launch a 1.5-L petrol version of the Smart Hybrid Vehicle System (SHVS) fitted in the Ciaz in August. The engine is being developed by Suzuki Japan and will be fitted in most of the bigger cars of Maruti Suzuki in future,” a person privy to the development said.

The person said MSIL is advancing the launch of the 1.5-L engine to this year, from 2019, because competition is rising in the segment, and in order to boost its sales to two-million units annually by 2020, the company has to start selling products of engine size from now on. It will launch a diesel version of the 1.5-L engine next year.

Looking for alternatives

“The company has up until now had no bigger engine than the 1.2-L petrol and the 1.3-L diesel engines. Although the petrol engine is in-house, the diesel engine is still sourced from Fiat, so the company has to look for alternatives,” sources said.

When asked about the bigger engine, the company declined to comment.

The company plans to enter the electric vehicle segment by 2020 with the electric version of the WagonR, and wants to explore other alternative fuel options, including CNG and hybrids.

“We want to look at alternative technologies. For example, government has now put the use of CNG for transportation at a higher priority. Therefore, we should not forget the use of CNG, Ethanol, Methanol or hybrids in cars before we jump to EVs,” RC Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, had said in April.

“We should first use all the options with us…because the end results are the same: less fuel imports and cleaner air. Our view is that we want to have a clean car and to reduce oil imports, as well as to cut pollution levels,” he had added.

Engine with turbocharger

Currently, the Ciaz is offered with the DDiS 200 (1.3L) Smart Hybrid Diesel Engine with Turbocharger and K14B VVT petrol engine (1.4L). The company’s only mid-size sedan competes with the likes of Honda City and Hyundai Verna, which have bigger engines (1.5L and 1.6L, respectively).

Meanwhile, sources said the same hybrid engine from MSIL will be fitted into Toyota’s Corolla Altis in the future, which will also be sold through the Maruti Suzuki network across India, under the agreement between Suzuki and Toyota Japan. But the new Corolla Altis hybrid version will come out only around 2020, the sources said.

Maruti Ciaz was launched in 2014 and has seen a lot of upgrades, including the sporty model Ciaz S, available between ₹9.59 lakh and ₹11.62 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The product was first sold through normal outlets of MSIL, but since last year, it is being sold through its premium channel Nexa.

In the whole range, priced between ₹7.83 lakh and ₹11.62 lakh (all ex-showroom, Delhi), MSIL has sold around 2.20 lakh units till now.

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