KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- The new Swift is the second most fuel-efficient hatchback in India
- For the run, we took the car for a 130km spin at 70-75km/h
- The car was subjected to a tankful to tankful analysis
Kitna Deti Hai - this still remains an important factor for a lot of new car buyers, specially those looking at investing into a hatchback. For 2024, the refreshed Maruti Swift gets an all-new Z series engine that comes with a certified economy of as much as 25.30kmpl for the AMT model. For the run, we had the manual ZXI+ but as both the gearbox options have similar gear ratios, for this highway run, the choice of transmissions didn't matter much.
Filling it up
As with any fuel economy run, it was time to fill up the Swift. We followed the auto-cut method, as filling to the brim is a very slow process and usually not recommended due to pressure issues once the cap is tightened. Next, we re-set the trip meter, fuel economy display, and engine running time.
Setting off
The fuel pump next to our hotel was on a single-lane state highway. The proper four-lane highway connecting Bengaluru and Hyderabad was about 6km away. Until that junction, I kept the Swift around the 60-65 km/h mark.
As I was trying to extract the maximum from the engine, once we hit the highway, I kept about 72km/h on the speedometer. Thanks to South India's pleasant weather in the morning, our air-con was switched off. How did the run go then? Lets show you some figures
The magical numbers
I decided to capture the displayed economy at intervals of 30km each. Once we hit the first 30, the displayed figure surprised me - 31.6 kmpl! Unbelievable right?
This part of India has a lot of elevation changes and gradients. However this also meant hills around and great views on such a run. I increased the speed to 74km/h and even then, at the 60km mark, displayed fuel economy of the 2024 Swift went up North to 34.5kmpl. That is 34.5 meters for every 1ml of petrol. Shocking, eh?
To make this a genuine and real world run, I ensured any elevation changes were erased. How? By taking a u-turn at the mid-way mark. We had come down to 2500 feet above mean sea level, about 500 less as compared to the starting point.
It was time to head back towards Bengaluru and gain elevation. As a result, at the 90km mark, displayed number dipped to 32.8 kmpl. However, this was still excellent by all margins.
I was now sticking to 75km/h and at the 120km mark, the figure of 32.4 kmpl translated into a wide grin on my face. We left the highway and aimed to hit the same pump that we used in the morning. When we got there, we had covered 131.3km at an indicated mileage of 32.3 kmpl. Would this be true?
The result
We followed the same process of auto-cut while filling the Swift here. To our shock, the auto-cut came in at just 4 liters.
Simple calculations show this was turning out to be more than what was displayed! 32.8kmpl on a tankful basis is extremely good. While I do agree that a cruising speed of 75km/h is less, I am sure even at 85km/h without the air-con, the new 2024 Maruti Swift will deliver over 25km/h easily. If you happen to buy one, do test it out for us! And before ending, here's the full video - do have a look!
