Maruti Suzuki shook the entire auto sector by announcing departure from diesel engines in the wake of stringent emission norms. But the latest set of events reaffirm silver-lining for India's biggest carmaker and market leader. Only a few days back, an alleged BS-VI Maruti S-Cross diesel was caught testing, and now a BS-VI Ertiga diesel has been caught on the camera, suggesting that Maruti Suzuki hasn't entirely given up on the diesel engines.
As seen in the spied picture, the partly camouflaged test mule of the Maruti Ertiga was seen with the DDiS badging on the front fender which is a clear indication of it being a diesel vehicle. Also, when looked upon closely, the document stuck on the backglass clearly say that the test mule employs a BS-VI compliant unit.
The engine in question could very well be the Fiat-developed 1.6-litre diesel engine which was earlier reported getting tested in the BS-VI Maruti S-Cross diesel. This 1.6-litre unit is called DDiS 320 at Maruti Suzuki, and in the previous, BS-IV avatar it developed 120 PS of maximum power and 320 Nm of peak torque output. If you recall, a previous report had claimed that Maruti Suzuki is working on the BS-VI version of the DDIS 320 engine.
The engine options of the current Maruti Ertiga include a BS-VI compliant 1.5-litre petrol unit and a BS-IV compliant 1.5-litre diesel unit. The former produces 105 PS of power and 138 Nm of torque, while the latter produces 94 PS of power and 225 Nm of torque. A CNG variant is also available now.
Maruti Suzuki has steadily updated its current petrol-powered portfolio with the BS-VI emission requirements. Its offerings like Swift twins, Baleno, Ertiga, XL6 and the recently launched S-Presso, all are BS-VI compliant vehicles.
We expect the BS-VI Maruti Ertiga to make its market debut sometime in 2020.
[Source: GaadiWaadi]
