Maruti Suzuki working on a portfolio of hybrid models

Market leader Maruti Suzuki India, which has just launched its first hybrid diesel Ciaz is believed to be working on introducing this mild hybrid technology on a couple of other diesel models and later expanding it to cover its petrol portfolio as well.

Confirming this, Kenichi Ayukawa managing director said on the side lines of the Ciaz smart hybrid launch “Gradually we are expanding the hybrid technology to other models. Those models will come with some changes as we implement this kind of technology.”  It is believed that the Ertiga MPV and other models like the Dzire and Celerio could be in the running for fitment of this smart hybrid technology.

“Diesel is more fuel efficient so first we are bringing it into diesel and will later look at petrol. Fortunately we have a lot of models and have to decide what is our priority and then implement,” Ayukawa added.    

The Ciaz 'smart' hybrid diesel replaces the existing Ciaz diesel immediately and customers ordering the diesel sedan will be delivered the mild hybrid diesel Ciaz. At present, the carmaker has sold 60,000 units of the Ciaz since its launch last year with the diesel basket constituting 55 percent of the total sales and the petrol 45 percent. The new Ciaz smart hybrid diesel starts at Rs 19,000 higher than the existing Ciaz diesel.  It comes in five trim levels with an introductory price of Rs 8.23L for the VDi edition through to Rs 10.17 lakh for the ZDi+ version trim.

The new Ciaz hybrid has already reached the Maruti Suzuki dealerships with deliveries to start from tomorrow. The carmaker expects sales of the Ciaz to pick up with the new technology on offer in the market.

The new smart hybrid diesel Ciaz forms part of the Government’s FAME programme (Faster adoption and manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicles) announced earlier this April. Under this scheme, the Ciaz hybrid customer will be offered an incentive of Rs 13,000 at the time of purchase that will be refunded to the company by the government. A reduced excise duty from 24 percent to 12.5 percent will also be applicable on the new hybrid car.

Leveraging the SHVS (smart hybrid vehicle technology) of Suzuki, the Ciaz hybrid diesel sports features such as idle engine start-stop which turns off the engine automatically when the car is idling, power assist and brake energy regeneration that assists the engine’s idle start stop function and assists the engine during acceleration. The Ciaz hybrid delivers a fuel efficiency of 28.09 kmpl making it the most fuel efficient car in the country followed by the Celerio and DZire diesel. It is powered by the DDiS 200 (1.3L) engine that comes in the Ciaz diesel mated to a 5-speed manual transmission.

Meanwhile, the SHVS technology uses an integrated starter generator (ISG) and an advance high capacity lead acid battery. This system supplements the engine’s power making it more efficient than the conventional set up. The energy saved while decelerating or braking, which is otherwise lost is stored in the advance high capacity battery to enable acceleration enabling higher fuel efficiency. The DDiS 200 variable geometry turbocharger super combo is paired with the ISG for enhancing its performance and improving mileage.

In terms of safety, the Ciaz is built on Suzuki’s Total effective control technology for higher body rigidity and stability and extensively uses high tensile steel. Among safety features it sports dual airbags, seatbelts with pre-tensioners and force limiters, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors and camera, fog lamps and rear defogger.

Maruti Suzuki’s first tryst with a hybrid vehicle began with the SX4 sedan with about 10 models developed for the Commonwealth Games in 2010 followed by the Swift Range Extender that will undergo a pilot project in collaboration with the Heavy Industries Ministry.

Meanwhile, the S-Cross that was launched in August has received a good customer feedback with the first month reporting sales of 4,500 units. The crossover has received 10,000 bookings with the carmaker having set up 50 Nexa showrooms where the S-Cross will be retailed with about 1500 relationship managers having been appointed.  

During August, Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 117,864 vehicles posting a growth of 6.4 percent. This includes 106,781 units in the domestic market and 11,083 units in exports. The company had sold a total of 110,776 units in August 2014. In exports it experienced a degrowth of 11.1 percent at 11083 units. It also experienced a degrowth of 11.3 percent in the compact segment during August at 41,461 units.

“Our overall portfolio has grown by 6.4 percent so month on month there may be small variations but you should see how the trend is moving and what is the cumulative growth. In that we are moving in the right direction and had a 13.8 percent growth for the year FY’16 which is a healthy growth and compared to last year our numbers are high,” says RS Kalsi, executive director sales and marketing.  For the Ciaz smart hybrid the focus is first on the domestic market.

The carmaker is hoping that its new Ciaz smart hybrid will draw more customers to the market. Ayukawa is optimistic that MSIL will end this fiscal with a double digit growth against the 5-8 percent expected by the industry.

“Retails are very important and we are preparing for the festive season for which we are keeping some volumes in the network. We hope all the vehicles will be sold out after the festive season,” adds Ayukawa. On the export front, he says during August overseas operations experienced some delays as a result the numbers are a little behind last year’s figures that were higher. But these will catch up soon.