Considering that there still is sufficient demand for diesel engines, Maruti Suzuki will assess the market for the first 7-8 months in the BS-VI era before bringing back their diesel engines.
Maruti Suzuki had earlier announced that they would discontinue all their diesel engines post the BS-VI emission norms kick in. The announcement came in as a huge surprise considering diesel engines contribute significantly to Maruti’s sales. Also, they had spent about Rs. 1,000 crores developing their new 1.5L, diesel engine just some time before making this announcement.
However, it was believed that if sufficient demand for diesel engines still exist post BS-VI, then Maruti will consider bringing them back. Diesel engines would require considerable updates to make them BS-Vi compliant and that would inevitable raise their costs, which is why Maruti initially decided to discontinue them. According to a report by Zigwheels, Maruti is already working on making its 1.5-litre diesel engine BS6-compliant.
Maruti Suzuki introduced the 1.5-litre DDIS225 engine first in the Ciaz and then put it in the Ertiga too. Out of every ten Ciaz’s sold, two are diesel and out of every ten Ertiga’s, five are diesel. That’s a decent enough number while considering the shift to BS-VI emission norms. Thanks to sufficient demand, Maruti Suzuki has started working on upgrading its 1.5-litre diesel engine to meet BS6-emission norms. The company will assess the market for the first 7-8 months post the BS-VI emission norms and if they see there is still sufficient demand for diesel cars, they will put the BS-VI compliant engines in their cars.
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Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automaker, cannot afford to lose its customer base because of no diesel engines. Moreover, rival brands like Hyundai, Ford, Mahindra and Tata will all have diesel engines post April 2020 and that would be giving them a huge competitive advantage. Also, considering that Maruti needs to gain the Return on Investment on Rs. 1,000 spent in developing the engine, Maruti diesel engines will make a comeback in the BS-VI era.
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It will be the Ciaz and the Ertiga that would see the diesel engines in the BS-VI era from Maruti, if at all. Maruti’s bread and butter cars which includes the Swift, Dzire, Baleno and the Brezza could be petrol only models in the future. We are not sure if they will see disel engines in the BS-VI era. Considering the slowdown in the automotive industry, Maruti will will decide in the best interest of their business.
