India’s number one automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, has launched the new Swift Dzire compact sedan at a starting price of Rs. 4.79 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi price). The compact sedan is 4 m in length which helps it qualify for the excise duty benefits offered by the government of India to the manufacturers whose cars measure less than 4 meters in length.
The new Swift Dzire is available in both petrol and diesel engine options and also is offered as a four-speed automatic petrol variant. It shares the same engine as that of the new Swift. The new Swift Dzire is equipped with 1.2 litre petrol engine that gives out a power of 80 bhp and a torque of 190 Nm. The 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engine, which is supplied from Fiat, delivers 75 bhp power.
The Dzire was launched in 2008, and since then it was able to sell 3.2 lakhs of its units. Since this model was longer than 4 meters, it did not enjoy the excise benefit of 10 percent. Moreover, cars with engine capacity of 1200 cc petrol and 1500 cc diesel are considered as small cars. The bigger cars attract an excise duty of 22 per cent with an additional Rs 15,000 for those cars with engine capacity above 1,500 cc.
The new Swift Dzire is equipped with a dual tone dashboard, integrated stereo (higher variants) and many safety features. The boot space has been reduced as compared to the previous one but still offers a trunk space of 316 litres. There are many more features which have been added in the new Swift Dzire which has resulted in the investment of Rs. 230 crore by the company and its vendors.
Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said, “At present the Dzire has a waiting period of 3-4 months and MSI is looking to address the issue by gradually ramping up the output.”
The new Swift Dzire petrol version is priced at Rs 4.79 lakh to Rs 6.54 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) and the diesel version is priced at Rs 5.80 lakh to Rs 7.09 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
This will be produced from Maruti’s Manesar plant. AS it hits the Indian roads, it is going to compete with Toyota Etios, Hyundai Accent, Tata Indigo CS and Mahindra Verito.
