Maruti confirms launch of new Swift in August as production activity begins

A Maruti Suzuki spokesperson has confirmed to CarToq that the new Swift will be launched in the second-half of August. The specific date for the launch, said the spokesperson, would become clear in a couple of days.

There have been many reports in the past week or so speculating whether the launch will indeed happen in August or get pushed out to September. The uncertainty arose because of the production constraints and backlogs of orders that Maruti is facing after the strike in its Manesar plant last month.

To prepare for the new Swift launch, Maruti has stopped production of the existing Swift now, and the next 4-6 weeks, Maruti and its dealers will focus on clearing the backlog of orders and the inventory of the existing Swift.

Tooling and assembly has begun for the new Swift at the plant in Manesar. The new Swift has subtle differences on the exterior such as larger headlamps, a redesigned front grille, revamped tail lamp cluster and a slightly increased wheelbase (by about 50 mm). Though it looks a lot like the existing Swift at first glance, it is in fact a whole new car that’s been built from the ground up.

On the inside, the new Swift will get design elements from the Maruti Suzuki Kizashi such as the V-shaped instrument console. The instrument dials will also be refreshed. The rear leg room will be slightly more in the new model due to the slight increase in wheelbase. Also read: New Maruti Suzuki Swift bookings begin at Rs. 10,000

Under the hood, the new Swift will retain the same engines, the 1.2 litre K-series petrol engine that makes 84 bhp of peak power and the 1.3 litre DDiS diesel engine that makes 75 bhp of peak power. The engines will be mated to 5-speed manual transmission. There is speculation that Maruti Suzuki may launch an automatic transmission for the petrol variant.

The new Swift’s petrol motor reportedly gives a mileage of over 20 kmpl while the diesel motor could give a mileage of as high as 23.8 kmpl. Further the company has used high tensile steel in sections, reducing the weight of the car.

Maruti Suzuki will have petrol tanks from a France-based fuel tank manufacturer called Plastic Omnium which is the world’s largest plastic fuel tanks manufacturer. The new Swift will use plastic fuel tanks which are 25-35% lighter than the conventional metal tanks used in present Maruti cars.

Further the fuel tanks are non-explosive, corrosion-free, durable and easily recyclable. Further the radiator’s cooling shroud is also made of plastic (replacing the steel in current model) that has reduced the weight by 1.5 kg.

Despite tweaks to improve fuel efficiency the new Swift will hopefully retain the current model’s characteristics as far as handling, gear shifts and low noise vibration harshness (NVH) levels are concerned.

So far the Swift has set a benchmark for small cars and holds a 25% market share in the premium hatchback segment. It is still the leader among its rivals such as Tata Indica Vista, Toyota Etios Liva, Skoda Fabia, Honda Jazz, Ford Figo, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Micra and Fiat Grande Punto. We think the new Swift will only make things better.