Maruti to roll out a new variant of diesel Ciaz

Maruti Suzuki is set to relaunch the diesel variant of its Ciaz sedan in the second half of this month. The facelifted sedan will come with additional features and is based on a hybrid technology. It will use kinetic energy from rolling wheels to charge the battery and offer better mileage.

This is Maruti’s first experiment with hybrid technology. The relaunch is happening about 10 months after launch of the Ciaz last October. Maruti dispatched only 2,099 cars in the domestic market last month. Maruti has been selling about 4,000 Ciaz sedans to dealers a month, with sales crossing 6,000 in a couple of months.

A relaunch just before the start of the festival season that begins next month is expected to contribute to Maruti’s overall sales volume.

Ciaz dispatches in July dipped as the company stopped manufacturing the older diesel variant. Maruti is now making the new Ciaz, which will be sold to dealers from later this month. There is also a high probability of the Ciaz being sold through the premium Nexa dealerships that now sell only the recently launched S-Cross.

The company has been tightlipped about the development since many dealers are sitting on stocks of the older Ciaz. A company spokesperson said such monthly aberrations happened and there was nothing unusual in the July sales decline.

“Ciaz continues to have strong demand. We have sold a total of 55,000 cars since its launch. One should not read too much into the wholesale numbers of a month. We do not comment on future product plans,” the spokesperson said. The number of 55,000 includes export as well. Ciaz comes in both petrol and diesel variants. Petrol comes in both manual and automatic transmission. Currently, diesel comes in only manual transmission.

Ciaz is the first successful sedan and premium car experiment of Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest passenger vehicle maker. The company had failed to achieve the desired success with its past premium launches such as Kizashi and Grand Vitara. Kizashi has been phased out.

Manufacturers usually relaunch a vehicle when the product starts losing traction. A relaunch is expected to create excitement in the market and grab attention of buyers. Japanese car maker Honda relaunched the Jazz in July almost four years after it was withdrawn. Jazz was launched in 2009. In May, Tata Motors launched GenX Nano, a revamped version of the Nano launched in March 2009. In the same month, Mahindra and Mahindra relaunched the sports utility vehicle XUV500, four years after the launch.