-Alternate fuels are the current focus

-Future lineup to be led by Hybrid and EVs

Maruti Suzuki has revealed its future powertrain plans. Ahead of its arrival in the Indian car market, Maruti Suzuki had taken journalists to visit their R&D facility in Rohtak. Here it revealed that it was working on ICEs capable of running alternate fuels like E85 and E100 petrol both of which are heavy on ethanol. In addition to this, the engines would also be compliant to run on Bio-CNG.

However, these were revealed to be intermediate plans and their real long-term goal would be to have a lineup using hybrid electric powertrains. The Grand Vitara with both its hybrid powertrain options is our first glimpse into this future powertrain setup. In parallel Maruti Suzuki has been putting its weight behind CNG power and currently has the gas power option on nine of its vehicles in the Arena range of cars, the latest of which was the Swift CNG that was launched on 12 August.

The move is a paradigm shift from the automaker that at one point in time even had an 800cc three-pot diesel powering the first-generation Celerio. For a long time, its range was powered by a Fiat-sourced 1.3-litre diesel engine (DDiS) across a variety of its vehicles. Just before the advent of BS6, they had introduced a new 1.5-litre diesel but it did not make the cut when the new regulations came into force.