Scoop! Maruti Baleno 1.0L turbo-petrol caught testing

Thank you to Naren Konamme for sharing these pictures and information with other enthusiasts!

Maruti Suzuki has started testing a more powerful version of the Baleno hatchback. The car was spotted at a hotel parking lot in Cochin. Naren spoke to the team of Maruti engineers who were staying in the same hotel and got some information about the car.

The car was spotted in black colour. It might be noted that the Baleno isn't sold in black at present.

The Baleno under test was powered by a 1-litre Boosterjet engine. At present the Baleno is available with only one petrol engine in India - a 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder unit that puts out 83 BHP and 115 Nm of torque. The Boosterjet engine has 3 cylinders and a turbocharger. It develops 110 BHP and 170 Nm of torque. Naren claims that the engine sound was a little more compared to his new petrol Baleno.

The Baleno Boosterjet was being benchmarked against the Volkswagen Polo GT TSI and both cars were being driven back to back. The Baleno had a 5-speed manual transmission (the Polo is only available with a 7-speed automatic).

The car under test was an export model and had additional safety features such as side airbags, all four disc brakes, tyre pressure monitoring system and radar-based brake support (which was showing as disabled in the MID).

The body panels and doors felt the same as the Indian Baleno. When he asked whether the body shell is the same for the Indian and export models, the engineer replied in the affirmative. The alloy wheels were different and looked a lot better than the ones found on the existing car. The kerb weight of the car is about of 950 kg (regular Baleno weighs 865 kg).

Coming to the interiors, the seat fabric etc. were the same as the regular Baleno.

Maruti is testing the Baleno Boosterjet in various parts of India. Cochin was chosen for its coastal climate. The car is likely to be launched India in mid or late 2016. The company is planning to launch it as the "fastest hatchback" in the country.

Naren was not allowed to click interior shots of the car. However, he did manage to get a couple of exterior shots.