In these days of high fuel prices, fuel economy is more important than ever before and a new car on the market genuinely surprises on this front
First things first, let me make a couple of admissions. The first is that I have never really considered the Maruti-Suzuki Ciaz as a vehicle that I would buy. It is spacious, comfortable and reliable as well, but it is not the most engaging car on the market, it isn’t even the most engaging car in its own class. And I have questioned Maruti-Suzuki’s ‘Hybrid’ system; it is not, in my opinion a hybrid, because a hybrid car is one with two power sources providing motive power. The ‘Smart Hybrid’ that Maruti-Suzuki was selling was essentially an improved electrical system that allowed for the engine to shut down at traffic lights (start-stop) and provided some additional horsepower while accelerating.
But, over the past six days I have been driving around in the refreshed Maruti-Suzuki Ciaz. I drove this car around Bengaluru recently and found it perfectly acceptable. But this, drive over an extended period of time and inside a city for regular day-to-day commuting is different. I have been driving the top-specification petrol-hybrid model. Again, Maruti-Suzuki is not using the battery pack; in this case a new Lithium-Ion module under the floor in addition to the lead-acid battery in the front; to drive the car. It is using this battery basically for start-stop power and for filling in the gaps as you accelerate.
But despite that, over the last 350 km that I have driven, a pretty normal amount of driving inside the city on regular working days for myself, I have achieved a truly incredible 15.4 km per litre. Now, I will admit that I have been driving very gently with few instances of hard acceleration and braking. But the start-stop with the new battery has really helped at long traffic lights that I’ve faced in Delhi and Noida. But I have used the air-conditioner and infotainment system constantly and I have used the car even for short drives to the market. So I have not tried to ‘game’ the result, and while I do plan my commute every morning choosing which route to take, I really have not done anything out of the ordinary to get this mileage.
Because, 15.4 km per litre is extremely impressive. Not just for a petrol car in this mid-sized sedan class, but even when you consider smaller sedans and large hatchbacks, some even with smaller engines.
To put this in context, to drive a 100 km, I would use around six and a half litres of petrol, which taking a weighted average of around Rs 85 a litre, will cost just over Rs 550, which no matter how you slice and dice it is very impressive. I have driven all the cars that compete against the Ciaz, with their petrol engines and none of them come close to this sort of fuel economy.
To be sure, I have not tried the Ciaz with the four-speed automatic and that will definitely have worse fuel economy, but you know what, I am sure the battery pack will make an economy difference in that variant as well.
But, to give you a comparison, another petrol-engined sedan in this class I drove, again, very judiciously over an extended period of time gave me around 12.1 km to the litre, which I felt was impressive. But that, again at a weighted per-litre price of Rs 85, would mean Rs 715 for 100 km of driving. Over 10,000 km of driving annually that is Rs 16,200 less and over a reasonable 18,000 km year, that is Rs 29,160 less at current fuel prices.
And we know that crude oil prices might touch $100/barrel in the next few months and neither the central government nor state governments have any inclination to cut fuel taxes, the cost impact only increases. And keep in mind, in Delhi you can only own a diesel car for ten years and while I am sure the diesel-hybrid Ciaz would also have huge cost benefits over its rivals, diesel’s inherent fuel economy only makes sense now if you are driving over 2000 kilometers a month. So over a five-year lifespan, if fuel prices continue to rise gradually, a Maruti-Suzuki Ciaz with its petrol engine could save you upwards of two lakhs. That is not chump change, heck, you can even buy an iPhone for that kind of money.
And this puts the Ciaz at a massive advantage to many of its rivals, because far from impacting car sales higher fuel prices will have consumers displaying a marked preference for more economical cars. Such cars should also suit the government, because as more Indians take to the roads it wants to both keep emissions down and ring-fence currency outflows due to crude oil purchases. Even with its relatively rudimentary (as compared to what other manufacturers have on offer) system, the Ciaz can dramatically change the market, especially since it actually costs less than some rivals. It might make Maruti-Suzuki offer this hybrid option on smaller cars like the Baleno and Swift and it might make rivals implement larger battery-packs on their cars as well.
Higher prices at the pump have changed market dynamics for cars in the past and are likely to do the same now. It has also changed the way that I drive on my regular morning commute.