Highway Star

New Delhi, Aug. 18: Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest car manufacturer, will roll out the revamped Zen Estilo, equipped with the latest KB-series engine, later this month.

The company will also invest more than Rs 1,000 crore to build its first research and development centre in the country, sources said.

The centre will be built on 700 acres at Rohtak in Haryana. An agreement to develop the centre will be signed between Maruti and the Haryana government on August 21.

At present, Maruti has manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon and at Manesar in Haryana.

The revamped Estilo will be manufactured at Gurgaon along with the A-star and Ritz, which also have the KB-series engine.

The car maker plans to use the new fuel-efficient engine in other models, too, over the next three to five years.

Maruti produces KB-series engines that comply with the Bharat Stage III, Bharat Stage IV and Euro V emission norms.

It produces two different petrol engines — 1 litre (A-star) and 1.2 litre (Ritz) — from the Gurgaon facility.

The three variants of the Zen Estilo, which are priced between Rs 3,06,418 and Rs 3,32,904 (ex-showroom, Delhi), will sport the A-star’s 1-litre KB-series engine.

Maruti had rolled out over one lakh units of the A-star and the Ritz within 10 months of manufacturing the engines.

According to the Automotive Research Association of India, the A-star gives a mileage of 19.6 km per litre, while the Ritz runs 17.7 km per litre.

The engine facility with a capacity of 2.4 lakh units per annum was part of the Rs 9,000-crore investment plan announced earlier by Maruti’s parent, Suzuki Motor Corp.