Premier Rio with MultiJet diesel engine to arrive this month

Premier Automobiles Ltd had earlier planned to introduce the diesel powered Rio by April; however the launch had been delayed by a few months. Now that Premier is in the final stages of readying the car for our roads, the diesel version of the Rio could be launched by the end of this month. 

The Rio diesel will be powered by Fiat’s acclaimed 1.3-litre MultiJet diesel engine. The engine at present is used by a number of carmakers including Maruti Suzuki, Tata and Chevrolet. Now Premier, having signed a three-year deal with Fiat, will also source the MultiJet engine for the Rio.

The 1.3-litre engine will produce about 75PS of power with similar tuning used in Maruti Suzuki Swift and Tata Vista. The introduction of MultiJet will also allow Premier to launch the diesel powered Rio in BS 4 markets since the earlier BS3 compliant 1.5-litre diesel version had been pulled out of 13 cities including Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai due to BS 4 emission norms.