Now that Brezza gets Mild Hybrid engine back with select manual variants, fuel efficiency has been increased by 2.51 km/l
With a slew of new SUVs / Crossovers, Maruti Suzuki has significantly increased its SUV share which was reflected in the company’s sales charts for CY 2023. With close to 13K sales in December 2023, Brezza is Maruti’s best-selling SUV / Crossover in India. The company has now revised features and kit with select trims of Brezza.
Maruti Suzuki Brezza Gets Mild Hybrid Engine Back
In a rather surprising move, Maruti Suzuki had revised features and kit with Brezza in July 2023. The company deleted ESP (Electronic Stability Program) and HSA (Hill Start Assist) from Brezza CNG variants and added 3-point seatbelts for all five occupants as standard. These didn’t raise as many brows as the deletion of 48V mild hybrid setup in 2023.
As standard, Maruti Suzuki used to offer 48V self charging hybrid setup with Brezza which was axed in July 2023 across all trims. Now in January 2024, Maruti is bringing back this 48V self charging mild hybrid setup. But instead of offering it as standard, the company is offering it only with higher and pricier trims.
Brezza will now offer 48V self-charging mild hybrid setup with its 1.5L K15C 4-cyl NA petrol engine bundled with both manual and automatic variants. Where manual gearbox variants are concerned, only ZXi and ZXi+ trims now get this mild hybrid powertrain tech. With automatic gearbox variants, Maruti always offered this tech and continues to do so.
This 48V self-charging system comes with an integrated starter generator motor unit that would assist engine with a slight nudges to fill in torque gaps across the rev range. This motor drew electricity from a small battery that would store lost kinetic energy as electrical energy, also known as energy recuperation.
Gain in mileage (fuel efficiency)
With manual gearbox variants, non-hybrid ones claim a fuel efficiency figure of 17.38 km/l. With the addition of mild hybrid tech on ZXi and ZXi+ manual variants, fuel efficiency figures have been increased by 2.51 km/l to an impressive 19.89 km/l. Automatic variants always got mild hybrid setup and fuel efficiency figures of 19.8 km/l remains constant.
There are no other changes and revisions in features and other attributes with this update. The 1.5L K15C 4-cylinder NA petrol engine continues to make 103.1 PS of peak power and 136.8 Nm of peak torque. Gearbox options include a 5-speed manual and a 6-speed torque converter automatic unit.
Prices for Maruti Suzuki Brezza start from Rs. 8.29 lakh (ex-sh) for base LXi MT and goes till Rs. 13.98 lakh (ex-sh) for top-spec ZXi+ AT. Rivals include Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Nissan Magnite, Renault Kiger, Mahindra XUV300 and the likes.
