Maruti Suzuki India Limited has inaugrated its new engine facility in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, which will manufacture the new ‘KB’ series of petrol engines. The new facility will have an eventual capacity of 2,40,000 units when running full monty.

Maruti Suzuki has invested a total of 1200 Crores in the project. The fully automated facility has has four production lines and is capable of producing an engine in a mere 55 seconds when running at full capacity.

The new ‘KB’ series of engine will eventually replace the entire current ‘J’ series of petrol engines in Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio. The new engine comes with advanced technologies making it powerful as well as fuel efficient while at the same time being kinder to the environment. The first engine to be manufactures at the spanking new plant will be the KB 10 engine which will soon do the duty under the hood of Maruti Suzuki’s A-Star, which will be launched very shortly.

The KB 10 engine is a 983 cc unit which delivers a maximum power of 67 PS @ 6200 rpm and a peak torque of 90 nm @ a fairly low 3000 rpm. The new engine boasts of lightweight aluminium construction, an all plastic engine manifold, a smart distributor less ignition system with dedicated plug top coils, advanced injectors and innovative rocker-less DOHC shaft.

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The engine weight has been further optimized by using lightweight pistons (which also help in reducing the interia and hence helping fuel efficiency) and nut less connecting rods. The result of all this is an engine which weighs a mere 47 kgs dry weight!

The ‘KB’ series will eventually cover all the cars in the Maruti Suzuki India porfolio.

Speaking at the occasion, Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director of Maruti Suzuki, said: “We are happy to introduce a brand new family of petrol engines for our customers. The new engine series is also an important step towards attaining the target sales of a million units in the domestic market by 2010-11.”