Maruti stops production of Swift hatchback, to relaunch new version by September

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NEW DELHI: Maruti has stopped the production of its highly selling premium hatchback Swift. This has been done to make way for the new Swift, which will be launched in late August or early September. The Swift was first unveiled by Suzuki in 2005 with a sporty sub-compact design.

Dealers have started accepting bookings for the new Swift. Maruti has codenamed the new Swift as YP8 and its trial runs are on in the Manesar plant.

Maruti currently sells close to 5000 Swifts every month and the car when launched in 2005 had changed the whole face of the India’s hatchback B to B+ segment. Other carmakers were forced to launch cars in the premium hatchback segment.

Suzuki, Maruti’s parent company had unveiled the 3rd generation Suzuki Swift last year in Hungary. In Europe a buyer has the option of 1.3 litre diesel engine and a 1.2 litre petrol engine. It is not known whether Maruti will launch this version of the Swift.

The 3rd generation Swift is slightly larger than the present one. Extensive higher strength steel has been used to make bodyshell lighter and stiffer.

Suzuki had said that the new 3rd generation Swift has an improved design, safety, fuel consumption and CO2 emission.

The Swift, which is available in petrol, diesel and CNG versions is currently priced between Rs 3.9-5.5 lakh in India. Swift competes with Hyundai i20, Volkswagen Polo, Skoda Fabia, Nissan Micra, Fiat Punto and Toyota Liva.

French carmaker Renault last month said it will launch a new hatchback in India during the Auto Expo in January 2012 that will compete with Swift. The car is specifically designed for the Indian market by its design centre in Mumbai.