Maruti Suzuki Celerio Bookings Cross 32,000; Company to Double Production Capacity of Celerio
Maruti Suzuki Celerio Bookings Cross 32,000; Company to Double Production Capacity of CelerioReuters

Maruti's latest endeavor Celerio has once again made headlines. The newly unveiled car has received over 22,000 bookings within 30 days of its launch in the country. A greater part of the booking is for the automatic transmission (AT) model.

"There is a lot of buzz around the car across the country and we have received over 22,000 bookings so far," Mayank Pareek, chief operating officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd told Hindustan Times. "Around 51% of the bookings are for the automatic variants and it is much higher than what we had anticipated. The demand for that version is not restricted to urban centres alone and even in smaller cities we are witnessing high interest for the technology."

Previous reports had said that the company is receiving 1,000 bookings per day and the increasing demand for Celerio is likely to extend the waiting period of the car in the domestic market. Unveiled at the Auto Expo 2014 in Noida, Celerio is the first car in India to come with Automated Manual Transmission (AMT).

The car that was originally launched at a starting price of ₹3.90 lakh, is now available at ₹3.76 lakh. The company revised the price of the hatchback Celerio in India, after the announcement of a reduction in excise duty by finance minister P Chidambaram.

The Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) equipped LXi and VXi variants will now go on sale for ₹4.14 lakh and ₹4.43 lakh respectively, as against the ₹4.29 lakh and ₹4.59 lakh. Under the hood, Celerio packs a 998cc, 3-cylinder, K10B engine, which can churn out a power of 67 bhp at 6,000 rpm and a torque of 9.1 kgm at 3,500 rpm. It is offered in six variants in the country - two with automatic transmission and four with manual transmission - and claims a fuel efficiency of 23.1 kilometers for both versions. 

(Edited by Vanilla Sharma)