Maruti Suzuki India may launch 800cc diesel engined car by 2014 end

While there are only rumours about Tata Motors' plans to launch a diesel version of its small car Nano, here comes a media report claiming Maruti Suzuki India could become the first carmaker to roll out a small car with an 800cc diesel engine. A report published in the Financial Express says that Maruti's new global car will be the first model to get the Suzuki's self-developed 2-cylinder 800-cc diesel engine in 2014. The said engine is likely to return the mileage as much as 30kmpl, making it the most fuel efficient car of the country.

The report further says that the projected small could be the YL7 (code name), which will replace both the A-Star and Zen-Estilo. Likely to be based on the A-Star platform, the new small car will be the smallest and cheapest diesel engined car in the country. The similar engine could also power the WagonR, about which we spoke in our previous stories.

"The diesel engine plan is on the speed lane for Maruti. While the petrol model of the YL7 will be launched first around the Auto Expo, the start of production for the diesel variant is for later part of the year. The YL7 will be exported from India to various markets and, in some, will also be sold as the new Alto," a source close to the development said.

Financial Express also claims that the same has been also confirmed by a senior Maruti official, but he requested not to disclose his name. The new small car YL7 will be initially rolled out with a 1.0-litre petrol engine sometime in first quarter of 2014. And we believe that the 1.0-litre petrol engine will be the same K-Series engine that also powers the existing A-Star, WagonR and Alto K10. While, the 800cc diesel engined powered version will be rolled out by the end of 2014.

This is all what we have for now, stay tuned to CarDekho for all the latest updates on the same. Cheers!