Maruti Suzuki will discontinue all the diesel cars in its portfolio from the Nepalese market with effect from April 1, 2010. The country's largest automaker has presently no plans to introduce a BS VI compliant diesel engine in the country as it fears that it might escalate costs and pricing substantially. However, petrol variants of all the Maruti products will remain on sale, albeit with a new BS VI compliant engine. For those asking, April 1, 2020, onwards, only BS VI compliant vehicles will be sold in Nepal.

"From April 1, 2020, we will not be selling diesel cars," MSI Chairman RC Bhargava said. Recently, Maruti Suzuki launched the Baleno with a new 1.2L DUALJET, DUAL VVT BS VI petrol engine with next-generation Smart Hybrid technology. It is the BS VI compliant model from Maruti Suzuki. The company announced that all the existing 1.2L VVT petrol engine variants will also be BS VI compliant. The NextGen Smart Hybrid Technology with Li-ion battery has been introduced to improve fuel economy. Around 23 per cent of the total sales of Maruti comes from diesel vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki will also phase out the diesel variant of the Super Carry LCV from April 1 2020, while the petrol and CNG variants will remain on sale. R.C. Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki said in a press conference, "Our judgement is that a BS6 diesel LCV with a small engine, the cost increase of upgrading it to BS6 is too high and we intend to discontinue the diesel version of this LCV. There will be no diesel on this LCV because we don't think we can meet the cost target for customer requirements of these vehicles. But we will have petrol and a CNG variant of this vehicle because we think that the petrol and the CNG versions will actually become more economically viable."

Some Key Introduction:    

• Introduction of BS VI Diesel Engine would increase costs heavily
• Diesel variants of Swift, DZire, Ertiga, Ignis, Vitara Brezza & Ciaz will be phased out
• Maruti Super Carry LCV will also be sold in petrol and CNG fuel options

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