Maruti Suzuki has just introduced its DZire Diesel sedan with its proprietary Auto Gear Shift (AGS) technology. With this DZire becomes the first diesel car — and the fourth model in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio — to be offered with the AGS technology.
Maruti introduced the AGS technology in India first with the Celerio and it is currently also being offered in Alto K10 and WagonR.
It is the equivalent of the automated manual transmission that is used in many cars globally.
An official Maruti release mentions that the DZire Diesel with AGS will deliver a fuel efficiency of 26.59 kmpl, same as that of the manual transmission. The AGS transmission will be available in the top end ZDi variant of DZire and will be priced at ₹8.39 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi. (in comparison, ZDi Manual Transmission ex-showroom Delhi price is ₹7.90 lakh.)
Till date, the company has sold over 11.5 lakh units of DZire making it the only sedan in India to cross a million units sales mark.
Auto Gear Shift (AGS) also known as AMT is a clutch-less or two-pedal technology that makes driving comfortable in heavy city traffic conditions.
Essentially, the technology involves hydraulic actuators that do the job of engaging the clutch and shifting into the right gear slot instead of the manual inputs by the driver. The advantages of the AGS or AMT are that they behave like a conventional automatic transmission, while being extremely affordable and without any compromise on the fuel efficiency.