Coming Soon - India's Cheapest Diesel Car

India’s cheapest turbo diesel engined car is coming soon, and it’s a Maruti Suzuki. The 792cc twin cylinder turbo diesel engine, first introduced in the Maruti Suzuki Celerio, will have a larger part to play in the coming days. This very engine is expected to power the Alto, which is Maruti Suzuki’s least priced entry level model.

The Alto is also India’s largest selling hatchback, and is sold with two petrol engines – 800cc triple cylinder and 1 liter triple cylinder units. The 800cc Alto is also sold with a CNG-Petrol option. With the addition of the 792cc turbo diesel engine from the Celerio, the Alto will be India’s least priced turbo diesel engined car.

The market introduction of the Alto Diesel is expected to happen sometime in 2016. The car is expected to be priced at around 3.5 lakh rupees, which will make it the least priced diesel powered car in the country, well below the Celerio Diesel’s 4.65 lakh rupee starting price tag.

Also See: Maruti Celerio Diesel – All You Need To Know

A fuel efficiency number close to the 30 Kmpl mark is quite likely for the Alto 800 Diesel. The 792cc twin cylinder diesel engine’s 46 Bhp and 125 Nm outputs should be more than sufficient on the Alto, which is a very light car. If Maruti Suzuki retains these outputs on the Alto Diesel, expect perky performance.

Maruti Suzuki is making bold bets on diesel power as the automaker feels that small capacity diesels with frugal running costs still have a big market in India, even in the entry level budget hatchback segments. The Celerio is the first of the slew of small capacity diesels that India’s largest automaker has lined up.

Notably, the upcoming S-Cross crossover is alsp a diesel-only model. The WagonR is another car that is likely to be fitted with the twin cylinder turbo diesel engine. In due course of time, the Alto-WagonR-Celerio trio could form India’s most versatile cars in terms of the sheer number of fuel (petrol, petrol-CNG & diesel) and transmission (manual and AMT) choices they offer to the buyer.