Dzire CNG offers a mileage of 31.12 Km per Kg, bringing down its per km running cost significantly
With increasing brent crude prices, a large number of customers are expected to make switch towards alternate sources of fuels, including EVs and CNG. While EV adoption will take its own sweet time, majorly depending upon pace of development of EV Infrastructure, a switch to CNG could happen faster.
Maruti believes that CNG powered vehicles shall help it to increase its market share and hence it is focused on bringing in multiple new CNG products in foreseeable future. In fact, the company has forecasted that in the near future, around 20% of its sales will come from its CNG range.
New Maruti Dzire CNG – First Look
With the recent launch of new Dzire CNG, Maruti’s CNG portfolio now includes models like Alto, S-Presso, Eeco, Ertiga, Celerio and WagonR. Maruti is also planning to launch Swift CNG in coming weeks. It must be noted that Maruti already used to sell Dzire CNG for cab owners however it wasn’t available for personal usage. Now, Maruti has brought in Dzire S-CNG for personal ownership as well and will be selling the vehicle in 2 trims, VXi and ZXi.
Under the hood, 2022 Dzire CNG sports a K12M 1.2 litre VVT petrol motor which is able to dish out 66 kW and 113 Nm of peak torque, when running on petrol. However, while extracting power from CNG, this engine churns out 57 kW and 98.5 Nm of max torque. A 5-speed manual gearbox is offered as standard. Fuel efficiency figure of the sedan while running on CNG stands at 31.12 km/kg, which makes it a highly fuel efficient alternative. Below is a detailed walkaround video of new Dzire CNG, shared by Khushal Kumar.
Advantages Of Factory Fitted CNG Kit
Major advantage of having a factory fitted CNG kit on a vehicle is that it ensures that the vehicle’s warranty is intact. After market CNG kits make warranty null and void and also aren’t always reliable in terms of safety. Hence, it is always advisable to prefer factory fitted CNG kits over after-market fitments.
For new Dzire CNG, Maruti has also included a dedicated fuel gauge, inter-dependent ECU units, safety switches and stainless steel pipes and joints, all of which help to ensure that the car is extremely safe in terms of operations.
Another advantage of buying an OEM-made CNG vehicle is retuned suspension. Due to additional weight a CNG tank, vehicle dynamics change. To counter this, suspension needs to be retuned. Maruti’s engineers have retuned the suspension of S-CNG Dzire which shall help in better ride experience.
Pricing and Competition
New Dzire CNG currently competes with other factory fitted CNG powered sub 4 metre compact sedans, which includes Hyundai Aura and Tata Tigor. 2022 Dzire range starts at INR 6.09 lakhs and goes all the way up to INR 9.13 lakhs (ex-showroom). Prices of Dzire S-CNG start at INR 8.14 lakhs for VXI trim while ZXI trim is available at INR 8.82 lakhs (ex-showroom).
In case one doesn’t want to pay-up front and purchase Dzire CNG, Maruti is also offering a subscription facility. As a part of Maruti Suzuki Subscribe, monthly subscription rate for petrol powered Dzire starts at INR 14,100 while for CNG variant starts at INR 16,999.
