Maruti Suzuki Ignis on track for festive season launch

Maruti Suzuki's compact crossover Ignis has been linked with several launch dates in India. While there have been reports that Ignis will fail to enter the Indian market this year as expected, latest reports on the web suggest that it will be available during this festive season.

Ignis, which was showcased at the Auto Expo 2016, was originally scheduled for its launch in 2016. However, reports were doing the rounds that the launch was pushed to 2017 as Maruti Suzuki is trying to clear the backlog of its current hot-selling models like Baleno and Vitara Brezza.

It was also said that the launch of the powerful version of Baleno, the Baleno RS, was also unlikely to happen this year. Now a report of CarandBike says that Ignis is on the right track for its launch in the country and is gearing up for its preview at the 2016 Paris Motor Show.

Ignis will be the third model to join Maruti Suzuki's premium dealership Nexa. Currently Nexa has two offerings on its floors -- S-Cross and Baleno. Under the hood, Ignis is likely to get a 1.2-litre VTVT petrol engine and a 1.3-litre MultiJet diesel unit and the transmission is likely to be taken care of by five-speed manual gearbox.

Ignis is also expected to come with AMT (Automated Manual Transmission) in both petrol and diesel engine variants.