Maruti Suzuki operates the largest CNG portfolio in India. Marketed as S-CNG, it offers a single-cylinder CNG kit with almost all of its vehicles. For April 2025, Maruti Suzuki seems to have shortened its CNG portfolio by discontinuing CNG variants of Grand Vitara compact SUV. Let’s take a closer look.
Maruti Grand Vitara CNG Removed
While the company has not officially confirmed the discontinuation of Grand Vitara CNG, recent developments suggest so. One quick look at the company’s official website and it would not take longer for one to realise missing CNG variants. Also, a quick scan of Grand Vitara’s brochure reveals missing CNG variants and CNG powertrain specs.
This begs the question of whether Maruti Suzuki discontinued CNG variants from Grand Vitara’s powertrain options. On the surface, it sure looks like it. For context, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara’s Toyota counterpart, Urban Cruiser Hyryder (or the other way around) is still advertised with CNG variants on official website.
Grand Vitara has emerged as a leading compact SUV in India, which is second only to Hyundai Creta. It is one of Maruti Suzuki’s best-selling SUVs on sale in India and an important product. If we take compact SUV segment, only Grand Vitara and Hyryder offered CNG variants. Tata Motors will soon launch Curvv CNG, which has been spied testing.
Lack of sales could be a possible reason why Maruti Suzuki might have (speculated) discontinued Grand Vitara CNG variants. A prospective compact SUV buyer eyes for this segment for an aspirational vehicle coming from lower-tier segments. Here, CNG might come off as a money-saving measure that doesn’t fit into the image of a “Compact SUV”.
Also, Maruti Suzuki’s implementation of S-CNG in Grand Vitara included a single-cylinder CNG tank implementation, which many consider big and ugly. It makes almost half of the boot unusable. Maruti Suzuki has had dual-cylinder technology for a long time, but only in CVs like seen in the Super Carry.
What next?
Right now, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara is only offered in Petrol and Strong Hybrid powertrain options. Non-Hybrid 1.5L 4-cylinder NA Petrol engine has a peak power of 103.06 PS and 139 Nm, mated to either a 5-speed MT or a 6-speed AT and it gets an optional ALLGRIP 4WD system. Hybrid 1.5L 3-cylinder powertrain is 2WD only and gets a sole eCVT gearbox.
It is not sure whether Grand Vitara CNG is permanently discontinued or a temporary thing. Also, it is not sure whether Maruti Suzuki will come up with a better dual-cylinder implementation for Grand Vitara and other premium offerings in the future.
