Continued: 10 surprises about the upcoming Maruti Swift

Here is part-II of the story on the 10 surprises about the upcoming Swift.

No mild hybrid

There has been a lot of chatter that the new Maruti products will get a mild hybrid. While the company is studying the feasibility of adapting the mild hybrid in their smaller cars, the same will not be on offer on the Swift initially.

Currently, it is only the Ciaz and the Ertiga that get the mild hybrid technology. While the Baleno and Ignis receive it in the international market, the company chose not to get it to India. The same will happen with the Swift too.

Automatic, for the first time ever

The Swift has never had an automatic transmission in the Indian market till date. This is something that is soon going to change though, with the arrival of the new Swift. We expect the Swift to have an automatic transmission on both the petrol and diesel avatars. The petrol maybe get the torque converter unit from the Dzire or could get the AMT from the Ignis. The diesel will be an AMT though.

1.5 liter diesel in the works

Currently, Maruti uses Fiat’s 1.3 and 1.6 liter Multijet engines on their range. The company has begun developing their own 1.5 liter diesel engine which will most likely make it to the Swift at a later date. This new engine will be a 4-cylinder unit which will be made by combining the 800 cc 2-cylinder engine that was on offer on the Celerio diesel previously.

Better power-to-weight ratio

The all-new Swift is based on the TECT (Total Effective Control Technology) body structure. It shares its platform with the all-new Baleno. The new Swift has lost 120 kgs as compared to the outgoing version but is bigger than the outgoing one.

This will help improve the acceleration, and also help improve the fuel efficiency of the car – something that Maruti is known for. The car will continue to get the same engine options (1.2 liter petrol and 1.3 liter diesel), initially. Hence the new vehicle will be faster than the outgoing one.

Coming after the Dzire

For the first time since its inception, the Swift will come after the Dzire, the vehicle it is based on. Uptill now, it has always been the Swift which first got the updates and then the Dzire followed. This time though, we will be getting the Dzire with the all new face first and then the Swift will follow.

The Dzire is expected to launch by May this year, where as the Swift has now been pushed to the Auto Expo which will be held in 2018.