Italy based leading car maker Fiat will be manufacturing diesel engines for the popular portfolio models of India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki. The decision has been taken after Indian auto giant’s captive capacity failed to catch-up with the rising demand for diesel run cars in the country. It is to be mentioned here that about 85 percent of the Maruti’s Swift, Ritz, DZiRE and SX4 sold in the Indian market are now diesel versions.
At present, Maruti has a licensing pact with Fiat to produce Italian car maker’s popular 1.3L multi-jet diesel engines at its Manesar facility. The company has been producing Fiat sourced diesel engines at its Manesar plant since year 2007.
In a recent statement, Maruti chairman R C Bhargava said, "We need to do a lot of work before going for these engines. Besides technical changes to meet our needs, we need to homologate (technically certify) our cars again to be launched with any Fiat engine in India."
The company is looking forward to cut-down the export of its diesel engines over the period of next six months, so that the supply in the domestic market can be boosted.
Fiat and Maruti are likely to soon sign a supply agreement as Maruti has already carried out a technical feasibility study on diesel engines of Fiat a few months ago. The decision of sourcing the diesel engines from Fiat can be considered a good move from Maruti’s side as the demand for diesel run cars has surged substantially in recent months.
