India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has discontinued all 6 basic variants of the S-Presso hatchback. Prices For the S-Presso now start at an ex-showroom price of Rs 3.99 lakhs.
Maruti Suzuki has silently axed the Standard, LXi, VXi, VXi AMT and VXi CNG versions of the S-Presso from its lineup in what appears to be the latest shakeup of its entry-level hatchback lineup this week. Earlier this week, Maruti Suzuki had axed three variants of the Alto hatchback.
With the removal of its regular variant options, the S-Presso hatchback is now offered in 8 variant options – Standard (O), LXi (O), LXi (O) CNG, VXi (O), VXi (O) AMT, VXi (O) CNG, VXi Plus and VXi Plus AMT. With the changes in the lineup, the most affordable AMT version of the S-Presso – VXi (O) AMT – cost Rs 5.19 lakh while the CNG lineup starts at Rs 5.38 lakh (both prices mentioned are ex-showroom).
The S-Presso is Maruti Suzuki’s second offering in the entry level hatchback segment. The S-Presso is an attempt by the carmaker to cash in on the SUV craze as Maruti Suzuki has tried its level best to make the S-Presso look like a tiny SUV. However, underneath the raised bodywork and pseudo SUV looks, the S-Presso is basically the same car as Maruti Suzuki’s other car in the entry-level segment – the Alto.
The S-Presso draws power from a naturally aspirated 998cc K10B engine that can run on petrol and CNG. With petrol powering it, the K10B engine produces 67bhp at 5,500rpm and 90Nm of peak torque at 3,500rpm. Switching to CNG sees those figures fall to just 58bhp at 5,500rpm and 78Nm of peak torque at 3,500rpm. The petrol version of the S-Presso returns a mileage of 21.4km/l while the CNG variants return a mileage of 31.19km/kg.
The culling of the normal variants of S-Presso hatchback at first seems a bit weird, but it should allow buyers to option in more features as per their own choice. With the recent culling of variants on the Alto, it would seen Maruti seems to be either set to launch a new entry into this segment, something that we have talked about earlier this week with regards to a report of the Alto K10 returning to the market.
Another option, which still seems a bit presumptive is that Maruti looks to be readying itself to withdraw from the segment altogether as it has threatened to do so in the past few weeks due to the upcoming safety norms that mandate a minimum of six airbags.
Thoughts About Maruti Suzuki Culling Variants From The S-Presso Lineup
Maruti Suzuki’s culling of the general variants from its S-Presso doesn’t come as a surprise considering that the carmaker did the same to the Alto lineup a few days back. What this means is still up for debate though we do hope it is the upcoming arrival of the Alto K10 that is causing these changes.
Keyword: Maruti Suzuki Discontinues 6 S-Presso Variants - Only O & Plus Variants Remain