Maruti Suzuki Y9T Pick Up Truck comes into focus

Maruti Suzuki will rival the Tata Ace next year with a new pick up truck that is codenamed the Y9T. A product that is being specifically for the Indian market, the Maruti Suzuki pick up truck will see the India’s largest car maker entering the small commercial vehicle segment and taking on the likes of the Tata Ace and the Mahindra Maxximo. A new image of the Y9T’s body shell has made its way online and from the spyshot, it seems likely that the pick up truck will use the Omni’s body shell suitably modified to host a loading bed at the rear.

Suzuki sells a Omni based pick up truck dubbed the Ravi, in Pakistan, and the body shell of the Y9T appears similar to the Ravi than the newly launched, international version of the Suzuki Carry pick up. The Maruti Suzuki Y9T will feature a ladder frame chassis with leaf spring suspension at both the front and the rear. The pick up truck will feature a 792 cc, twin cylinder turbo diesel engine, which will drive the rear wheels. The interesting bit about this engine is that a refined version of it could be used on Maruti Suzuki’s small hatchbacks such as the Celerio and WagonR.

Apart from the turbo diesel engine, Maruti Suzuki is also expected to equip the Y9T pick up truck with a CNG powered engine, which is likely to be the 1.2 liter-4 cylinder unit found on the Eeco passenger van. The Y9T is expected to be have a payload similar to the Tata Ace and the Mahindra Maxximo. It remains to be seen if Maruti Suzuki will set up a new small commercial vehicle dealer chain similar to what Ashok Leyland has done for the Dost or whether the automaker will choose to use its existing passenger car dealership chain for the Y9T.