Diesel engines to be supplied by Fiat for Maruti-Suzuki cars

The Italian carmaker giant Fiat has signed a deal to produce 1,00,000 (1 lakh) of their 1.3 litre-Multijet engine for the Indian arm of the Japanese Manufacturer Maruti-Suzuki, helping them reduce the rapidly growing waiting list that already has 1,10,000 (1 lakh ten thousand) customers on their waiting list for its largest selling Swift.

The joint venture agreement is for a period of three years, supplying 1,00,000 engines annually to Maruti Suzuki. The production of Multijet 1.3 litre engines for Maruti Suzuki will begin in the fourth week of January at Fiat India Auto's Ranjangaon plant in Pune, and supplies will resume at the earliest. The supply of these engines got stuck on pricing issues.

A senior Maruti Suzuki official said, "Swift will definitely get preferential treatment, and we are hopeful of crossing 20,000 units of Swift in a month. And with the new Swift Dzire in the pipeline, additional supply of engines would be of immense help to reach our customers faster."