Suzuki takes up Tata’s Rs 1-lakh car challenge

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

Related Articles

Maruti, Hyundai sales zipRecord Mercedes-Benz sales in JanuaryNew models, rural mkts & low rates propel auto sal...Alto, Wagon R to get new engine

New Delhi, Dec 6: Suzuki Motor Corporation, 54% owner of India’s largest carmaker Maruti Udyog, is developing a 660cc engine and a new low-cost small car platform from scratch to counter the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car. With it, Suzuki hopes to provide the most formidable competition to date to Ratan Tata’s dream project.

Being developed under a blanket of secrecy at its headquarters in Hamamatsu in Japan, the car will roll out of Maruti’s Gurgaon plant by the end of 2008—around the same time that Tata Motors plans to launch its new small car. “We are working on a mini car which would be lower than 800cc in engine capacity,” Maruti’s director, sales & marketing Shuji Oishi confirmed to FE.

Suzuki believes it will be able to price the car in the same bracket as the Tata small car. Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant has admitted that his company’s car may be priced higher than the Rs 1 lakh target due to increasing raw material costs. “The Tata car would be higher than Rs 1.25 lakh. Our car would be priced competitively but the price won’t be Rs 1 lakh,” Oishi said.

The Suzuki and the Tata cars will be the first sub-800cc cars in the Indian market. The Suzuki car will offer over 50 bhp power with a 660cc petrol engine. In comparison, the Tata small car is expected to offer 30 bhp with a 700cc petrol engine. The 796cc Maruti 800 offers 37 bhp, while the Alto 800 offers 47 bhp.

While the Suzuki vehicle will be a geared, front-wheel driven car, the Tata car has an ungeared (continuous variable transmission) engine at the back powering the rear wheels. “Our car will be far more fuel-efficient than any car in the segment,” Oishi said. Maruti 800, currently India’s most fuel-efficient car, offers a mileage of 18-20 km a litre.

Suzuki Motor recently launched its mini car Cervo in Japan, which is powered by a 660cc engine offering 54 bhp. Its turbo-charged variant offers 60 bhp, more power than the Alto and the Maruti 800 and nearly the same as Wagon R’s 64 bhp. Cervo meets Japan’s 4-star emission standards and exceeds the 2010 fuel economy standards by about 10%. Japan imposes concessional duty on cars up to 660cc engine capacity to promote use of small, fuel-efficient cars in the country.