The Ritz from Maruti Suzuki in India finally made its debut today, available in petrol and diesel engines. With the Ritz – a Superior stance hatchback positioned at the premium-end of the compact car market – Maruti Suzuki consolidates its leadership in the highly competitive compact car segment. The Ritz comes with the BS-IV and OBD-I compliance much ahead of the regulation being enforced in the country.

The Ritz has been specifically designed for India. Maruti Suzuki engineers worked with the Suzuki design team in Japan to co-design the car and carry out India-specific changes.

The heart of the Ritz are the brand new 1.2 Litre K12M Petrol engine and the 1.3 DDiS Diesel power-plant, each offering optimum performance and fuel efficiency. Alongside this, the transmission system has been optimized for the Ritz to match Indian driving habits. With this the Ritz offers the best-in-class combination of fuel efficiency and drivability.

(Source) PR Domain

Tags: bs, car market, car segment, co design, compact car, compliance, debut, diesel engines, diesel power, drivability, fuel efficiency, leadership, maruti suzuki, optimum performance, petrol engine, power plant, ritz, suzuki engineers, transmission system

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Maruti has revealed that in 3 to 5 years time, they will be launching their own line of hybrid cars and compressed natural gas (CNG) variants for three or four models in the domestic market. The plan is part of the company’s broad strategy to develop small cars that run on alternative fuel technology.

“We are developing electric car technology for India. But it might take us up to the next five years or more to manufacture and sell electric cars in the domestic market,” said Maruti Suzuki Managing Director Shinzo Nakanishi.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava, added, “We are working on multi-fuel variants and some models have been identified for CNG. A CNG kit currently costs over Rs 40,000 and that is expensive. Also, these cars can only be launched in 2010 or 2011, when there is a pan-India CNG filling system from companies like Reliance.”

Bhargava pointed out that even Delhi lacked sufficient CNG filling systems for commercial vehicles. The company has already launched LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) variants of the Maruti 800 and Wagon R.

(Source) Business Standard

Tags: alternative fuel, commercial vehicles, Compressed Natural Gas, electric car, electric cars, hybrid cars, hybrids, maruti 800, maruti suzuki, petroleum gas, small cars

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India’s largest car manufacturing company, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has been resuscitated and it looks like they are making another go at exporting smaller cars to Europe. It has been 4 years since they stopped exporting cars and this time around, they are kicking of their trade by planning an initial export of 1,500,000 cars.

The pilot consignment, comprising 1,534 A-Star cars for export to the UK (1,458) and Italy (76), is expected to reach the European ports by early February 2009. Maruti Suzuki had started exporting its cars in 1985-86 to Europe, but stopped in 2004. The company has exported over 552,000 units cumulatively with about 280,000 units to Europe and Israel.

If you look at it, it is a great time of re-entry for MSIL. Considering the demand for smaller cars are growing these days, the sales potential has indeed become lucrative in the market. And for car buffs looking at various models and pricing of cars, MSIL may just be able to pull out some great deals to continue their venture which last came in 2004.

(Source) Economic Times

Tags: Europe, european ports, exporting cars, India, Italy, manufacturing company, maruti suzuki, star cars

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