EXCLUSIVE! Maruti Suzuki Fronx Facelift To Get ADAS

The Maruti Suzuki Fronx is due for a facelift next year, and when that happens, ADAS is one big feature addition that the best selling compact crossover will receive. In fact, the export version of the Fronx already has ADAS, and even all wheel drive (AWD), and Maruti just exported 1,6o0 units of the India-made car to Suzuki’s home market of Japan.

While ADAS will make it to the India-spec Fronx facelift next year, Maruti Suzuki will not introduce all wheel drive technology as it will 1. make the compact crossover quite pricey and 2. there’s very limited demand for all wheel drive cars in India, especially in the budget segments.

Maruti Suzuki’s decision to add ADAS to the Fronx Facelift comes on the back of younger car buyers increasingly demanding better safety features and technology from its cars. After the Fronx gets ADAS, many more Maruti cars such as the Grand Vitara Facelift, the Swift and the Baleno are also expected to get ADAS tech. Eventually, ADAS is expected to become standard across most Maruti Suzuki cars, just the way ABS and Airbags currently are.

Not just ADAS, Series Hybrid tech coming

Apart from ADAS, the Maruti Fronx will also be a torchbearer for a brand new technology that India’s largest automaker will introduce on a range of its affordable hatchbacks – Series Hybrid technology. Eventually, the series hybrid technology introduced on the Fronx will make it other affordable Maruti hatchbacks such as the just-launched 4th generation Swift and the best-selling Baleno.

What’s Series Hybrid tech all about?

In series hybrid technology, the internal combustion engine (typically a small displacement triple cylinder petrol unit) acts as a generator, and charges the on-board battery stack. An electric motor, which drives the wheels of the car, derives power from the battery stack.

So, the petrol unit is actually used to charge batteries (just the way a power generator performs), which in turn power the electric motor of the car, driving it forward. This technology was made famous by the likes of the Chevrolet Volt, and the Nissan eNote – a car that was being tested in India but never to make it to launch.

With the Fronx Facelift though, series hybrids will finally make it to the Indian market, and given the sheer volumes of cars that Maruti Suzuki sells, the new technology is likely to become very popular what with Swifts and Balenos also using this.

Series Hybrid = 35-40 Kmpl fuel efficiency!

The Fronx Series Hybrid is likely to use the 1.2 liter-3 cylinder Z12E petrol engine that was first introduced on the Swift. This engine will act as a power generator on the Fronx Hybrid, the Swift and also the Baleno. While this engine manages an ARAI fuel efficiency of 25.75 Kmpl on the Swift, the same engine acting as a power generator for the series hybrid set up on the Fronx should deliver about 35-40 Kmpl.

Series Hybrid tech = No range limitation of pure EVs

Series hybrid technology was primarily developed in order to maximize efficiency as well as solve range anxiety. Since series hybrid cars use petrol engines as power generators, refueling is literally as simple as going to a petrol bunk, and tanking up. There’s no need to stop and recharge the on-board batteries as the petrol engine does that job for you. Apart from exceptional fuel efficiency, this also means that range anxiety is a thing of a past. So, series hybrid tech gives the best of both worlds – the high efficiency of an electric drivetrain, and the jump-in-and-go attribute of a petrol car.