With Mahindra XUV300, Hyundai Venue looking to step up the heat on Vitara Brezza, the latter will get a petrol engine from Ciaz & Ertiga to maintain the high demand
The Maruti Vitara Brezza has been the highest selling SUV in India, with more than 14,000 units being sold every month. The Vitara Brezza rivals the Ford EcoSport and the Tata Nexon and outperforms them by a huge margin every month. However, the Mahindra XUV300 initial sales numbers hint that it is all set to increase the heat on the popular Maruti SUV.
The Mahindra XUV300 launched with powerful petrol and diesel engines, while both Ford EcoSport and Tata Nexon also offer sufficiently powerful petrol and diesel motors. That leaves the Maruti Vitara Brezza as the only model that doesn’t have a petrol motor on offer. But with the arrival of a strong forth rival Hyundai Venue next month with 2 petrol motors on offer, Maruti Suzuki looks all set to introduce a petrol engine variant.
The introduction of the petrol variant is expected to kill two birds with one stone. First, it will open the option of the Maruti Vitara Brezza to compact SUV buyers who might be interested in putting money on the petrol engine variants of the Tata Nexon and the Ford EcoSport. Secondly, the Vitara Brezza will benefit from the increased demand for petrol engine cars in this price segment.
Moreover, Maruti has already said that the introduction of the BSVI-compliant diesel engines will lead to a definite increase in the prices of diesel cars and Maruti likely to discontinue diesel engine from early next year. The company will roll out a petrol engine variant with a competitive base price later this year.
The petrol engine for the Maruti Vitara Brezza will come in the form of the K15B 1.5-litre four-cylinder naturally-aspirated petrol engine that debuted on the Maruti Ciaz facelift and in new-gen Maruti Ertiga. Along with that, as per our sources, Maruti Suzuki could bring 1.2L Dual Jet petrol engine too that produces 90 PS and good fuel efficiency of above 22 km/l.
Like for the Ciaz and the Ertiga, the K15B 1.5-litre petrol engine will produce 104 PS and 138 Nm for the petrol version of the Maruti Vitara Brezza. It is expected to offer a high mileage as it will come paired with the SHVS mild hybrid technology. Transmission options will include a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic.