Maruti Suzuki has launched the new Celerio Tour H2 variant aimed at the fleet owners. The low-cost variant of the car starts at Rs. 4.2 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi. The car comes with a factory-installed speed-limiting device as standard that limits its top speed to 80 km/h. It is according to the new government regulations that mandate all the taxi and cabs should get limited top speed.
The car is based on the LXI(O) trim of the Celerio facelift but is more affordable than the regular variant. It gets a black grille with chrome garnish, steel rims, body coloured bumpers, driver side airbag, black coloured ORVMs and door handles.
Maruti has not changed anything mechanically in the vehicle except for the speed-limiter. The car gets the same 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine that generates maximum power of 68 Bhp and peak torque of 90 Nm. The engine is mated to a five-speed manual transmission. It returns a maximum fuel efficiency of 23.10 km/l. Interestingly, the CNG version of the engine is not available with the Tour H2 variant. Most of the cab aggregators run on CNG as the fuel is cheaper and reduces the running cost by a great margin. As expected, the AGS (Auto Gear Shift) variant of the transmission is also not available with the commercial variant.
Maruti also offers other cars focused on the fleets owners and cab aggregators. WagonR and the old generation Swift Dzire are one of the largest selling cars in the commercial market. However, the WagonR does not get a “Tour” variant like the Celerio and the Dzire.
The cab aggregator business is expanding in India with the operators entering new cities. Other manufacturers like Hyundai also have fleet and cab aggregator oriented cars in the market.