Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car maker is all set to foray into light commercial vehicle market of the country. The car maker manufactures Super Carry LCV in India and currently exports to South Africa and Tanzania. Emerging reports say the launch of the Super Carry in India will not take long.
For India, the Super Carry will be powered by the E08 diesel engine. This is the same unit placed in the Celerio diesel hatchback. The 793cc, 2-cylinder diesel mill has the capacity to pump out 47bhp and 125Nm of peak torque.
"We will be launching the new LCV this year itself," ET Auto quoted R C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki. Maruti Suzuki Super Carry will be a big threat to Tata Ace range that boasts of 50 percent market share. Other players in the segment are Mahindra Gio, Ashok Leyland Dost and Piaggio Porter. The company will set up a separate retail channel in the Indian market, exclusively for the Super Carry.
Maruti Suzuki has already dispatched the first lot of nearly 100 Super Carry to South Africa and Tanzania. Besides African markets, the company also plans to export the Super Carry to the SAARC countries. The export-spec Super Carry is powered by the G12B four-cylinder petrol engine that develops 72bhp at 6,000rpm and 101Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, mated to five-speed manual transmission.
The Super Carry comes with a payload capacity of 750 kg. The load bed measures 1,490mm in width and the vehicle comes with 175mm ground clearance. The LCV requires a turning circle of 8.6 metres. It runs on MacPherson struts and coil springs front suspension and leaf springs at the rear. The LCV measures 3,800mm in length and 1,560mm in width.