The rising price of petrol in the country has raised everyone’s concerns. Due to the increasing burden on the pocket, people are turning towards cars running on other fuels instead of petrol and diesel. But now the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is preparing to launch a new CNG variant of its best selling sedan car Maruti Dzire in the market.

Recently, CNG variants of Maruti Dzire have been spotted during testing. To recall, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) had discontinued its 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine (sourced from Fiat) even before the BSVI emission norms came into force on April 1, 2020, last year. Now the company is selling only petrol and CNG cars, so the impact of reduced engine options has also been seen on the sales of the vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki is now looking to strengthen its S-CNG portfolio. The company has 6 models in its CNG car list, which includes Ertiga, Alto, Celerio, WagonR, S-Presso and Eco Van. Total S-CNG car sales crossed three lakh units in September 2020 and over 1.57 lakh CNG vehicles were sold in FY 2020-21, making it the highest in a financial year.

Currently, the S-CNG lineup includes models such as Alto, Wagon R, Eeco, S-Presso, Tour S, Ertiga, Super Carry and Celerio and new models will also be added to it in the near future. Maruti Suzuki believes that alternative fuel technology is the key to future betterment. Exactly a year ago, the company announced that it had crossed the one lakh sales mark of its CNG-powered vehicles in a single financial year.

The testing kit can be clearly seen in the Maruti Dzire CNG model that was spotted. Which is installed from the roof to the rear of the car. Maruti Suzuki’s S-CNG vehicles are equipped with dual interdependent ECUs. This is a very amazing technology, a micro switch has been given in it, which stops the vehicle during the process of filling CNG and does not allow it to start. This is very important from the point of view of security. Apart from this, it also gets a change-over switch, so that the driver can change the fuel instantly.

photo credit: cartwadi