Maruti to roll out CNG variants soon

Alto, WagonR and SX4 will be some of the top-selling Maruti Suzuki models to sport a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine this year, as India’s largest carmaker looks at alternate fuel technology to build a more environment-friendly fleet for the Indian market. Aiming to retain its 50% market share, Maruti will launch new CNG-fired versions of these vehicles that will be priced at a premium of around 15-20%. Maruti is using an in-house developed i-GPI (intelligent gas port injection) technology that will give the option of driving with either petrol or CNG as fuel. IV Rao, managing executive officer (engineering) at Maruti Suzuki, said it will be the only factory-fitted computer controlled gas distribution system to be integrated into the petrol engines using injectors to fire gas directly into engine eliminating any loss of power. (June 17, 2010)