Ahead of its India launch, Maruti Suzuki has confirmed that it has shelved its plans to launch the larger Jimny 5-Door in Europe. The new SUV will be locally manufactured here and also exported to other emerging markets.
We take a closer look at all the possible reasons behind this cancellation.
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Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-Door: Not Launching in Europe
The new Jimny 5-door is powered by Suzuki’s K15B 1.5-litre petrol motor, the same unit as the 3-door model sold globally. The latter was discontinued by the automaker in Europe and the UK in January 2020 due to stricter emission norms coming into effect. The company has cited that the upgrades required to the engine, making it road legal will be a costly affair.
Currently, each automaker can have a fleet average of 95g of CO2/km. Since the K15B motor doesn’t feature any electrification, it emitted high CO2/km figures of 154g/km for the MT and 170g/km on the AT 3-door model.
Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-Door: No New Engine?
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The Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-door is underpinned by a ladder-frame chassis with a longitudinally-mounted powertrain. To install a new powertrain, Suzuki would have to re-engineer the SUV a fair bit, changing the overall characteristic of the peppy off-roader.
Additionally, the automaker’s newer K15C or the 1-litre Boosterjet motor would provide only marginal emission benefits but attract higher costs. The brand also believes that the K15B motor provides better lower-end performance that is more suited for Jimmy’s off-roading abilities.
Furthermore, the K15B motor has already achieved a high level of localization and is compliant with the BS6 Phase II emission norms which is accepted in many emerging markets. All these factors deem the effort to re-engineer and install a new engine on the Jimny 5-door redundant.
Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-Door: Launch, Pricing, and Rivals
The Jimny 5-door will go on sale in India on June 7, with Maruti already accepting bookings at a token amount of Rs 25,000. While prices haven’t been announced yet, expect it to be priced somewhere around Rs 10 lakh (ex-showroom) - Rs 14 lakh (ex-showroom).
Upon launch, the Maruti Jimny 5-door will rival the likes of the Mahindra Thar and the Force Gurkha in the lifestyle SUV segment.
Read Also: Maruti Suzuki Jimny Mileage Revealed
