Maruti To Launch Petrol Variant of Brezza in August

• Published On: 7 July 2019
• 100 Views

Maruti Suzuki is preparing to launch a petrol variant of its best-selling Brezza sub-4-meter compact SUV in India in August.

A new report has claimed that India's largest automaker Maruti Suzuki is preparing to launch a petrol variant of its best-selling Brezza sub-4-meter compact SUV next month. The report goes on to claim that Brezza Petrol will be rolled out on 20 August. Though Maruti currently rules the sub-4-meter compact SUV segment with its Brezza, the company has been facing heat from new car launches in recent times and the car lost out in terms of sales to Hyundai Venue. It was in May 2019 that Hyundai Creta for the first time managed to beat Brezza in sales and much of it had to do with the fact Hyundai adopted a very aggressive strategy while pricing the Venue. With Venue grabbing a majority of Brezza buyers, Creta moved ahead to become India’s best-selling SUV in May 2019.

To curb this trend, Maruti has decided to rectify its past mistake of not offering Brezza with a petrol option. The petrol engine to be used in the new car will be the 1.5 liter-4 cylinder K-Series unit with 104 Bhp-138 Nm power-torque arrangement. We have already seen this engine in operation on Maruti Suzuki cars such as Ciaz and Ertiga. The Brezza Petrol is likely to get the mild hybrid option as well. On Ciaz and Ertiga, this engine gets 5-speed manual and 4-speed torque converter automatic gearbox options. The same gearbox options will be present on the new Brezza as well.

As Maruti has decided to stop manufacturing diesel cars from April 2020 in view of the new government emission norms, petrol mild hybrid powertrain with manual and automatic gearbox options will become a regular feature in all Maruti cars of the future.

Recently, Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava had reaffirmed the automaker's commitment to steer away from diesel engines from April 2020. He went on to add that diesel engines may be brought back only if high demand persists. For now, a petrol engine for the Maruti Brezza is imperative as every other rival in this segment sold in India barring offers a petrol option to buyers. Such is the demand for petrol engine in this segment that Ford EcoSport and Hyundai Venue offer not one but two petrol options with their cars. Other rivals like Tata Nexon and Mahindra XUV300 come with powerful turbo petrol engines. Amid all this, Brezza stands out as the sole SUV taking a diesel-only approach and this has hurt the manufacturer in terms of sales. Apart from the new engine, Brezza is also expected to get a mid-life facelift in August.