Maruti Suzuki Swift Facelift SPIED ahead of 2021 launch

A facelifted version of the best-selling Maruti Suzuki Swift has just been spied in Gujarat, India. The car is expected to be launched later this year. The spyshots show a Maruti Swift with a camouflaged front end that hides the front grille and bumper. There’s no other camouflaged part on the car, and this indicates that the facelift is likely to be a mild one at best. This is also reason why we expect the facelifted Swift to launch soon.

Images courtesy Motorbeam

The Swift Facelift seems production ready, and could feature the K12C petrol mild hybrid engine that’s offered on the higher variants of the Baleno. This motor makes 90 PS of peak power and 113 Nm of peak torque, which is a small but significant step up from the current Swift’s 83 PS-113 Nm outputs. Currently, the Swift is offered with the 1.2 liter-4 cylinder K-Series petrol engine that makes 82 Bhp pf peak power and 113 Nm of peak torque. There are two gearbox options on offer – a 5 speed manual and a 5 speed AMT. Replacing this engine with the K12C mild hybrid is expected to cut emissions further and boost fuel efficiency.

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The Maruti Suzuki Swift is known for its fun-to-drive nature, sharp looks, peppy engine, sure-footed handling and excellent reliability. These factors have resulted in the Swift becoming India’s best selling car during 2020, beating its much cheaper stablemate – the Alto. Apart from selling the Swift in India, MarutiSuzuki exports the Swift to many countries around the world. The car is built on the HEARTECT platform, which uses high strength, high tensile, light weight steel to retain structural stability while keeping weight as low as possible. This has resulted  in the Swift becoming the lightest car in its segment.

The Maruti Suzuki Swift has a compact sedan sibling called the Dzire, which shares engines, transmissions and much of its features with the former. The Dzire is also a best selling car, with its buyers coming from both the family car and cab segments. While the Swift and Dzire used to be sold with the 1.3 liter Fiat Multijet turbocharged diesel engine, Maruti has chosen to make both cars petrol-only after the transition to Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) emission norms. The Dzire got a mild facelift last year, and it’s now time for the Swift to follow suit.

If Maruti Suzuki does add the K12C petrol mild hybrid engine to the Swift, prices could go up marginally. If the automaker chooses to continue offering the Swift with the non-hybrid K-Series engine, a price hike could be thwarted, making the car more attractive to buyers. Currently, prices of the Swift start from 5.2 lakh. The Maruti Suzuki Swift operates in the B-Segment hatchback space, and rivals the likes of the Hyundai Grand i10, Grand i10 NIOS and the Ford Figo. All variants of the Swift get twin airbags, ABS, reverse parking sensors and speed alerts as standard safety features. Higher-trims of the car get the SmartPlay infotainment interface with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, LED headlamps and automatic climate control as prominent features.

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