Maruti Eeco to take the place of the Omni that bows out mid-2020 - Report

16/01/2019 - 17:28 Maruti Omni, Maruti Suzuki Yatharth Chauhan

MoneyControl reports that the Maruti Omni, which has been on sale in India since 1984, will be phased out by the middle of the current year. The highly popular low-budget people-carrier will face the axe owing to its inability to meet the new safety and emission regulations.

Speaking on the imminent demise of the Maruti Omni, RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, has said -

Omni would not be upgraded to meet the next generation norms. Eeco sales are going up and it is a similar vehicle.

The regulatory authorities mandate the provision of a driver-side airbag, ABS, speed warning alert, front seatbelt reminder, and rear parking sensors as standard fitments on all cars from July 1, 2019. By October 1, 2019, all models will be required to comply with stringent crash test norms, and by April 1, 2020, India will embrace the BSVI emission norms.

The Maruti Omni, which is based on the seventh generation Super Carry, is incapable of attaining compliance with the forthcoming norms. Hence, in spite of a considerable demand (as of October 2018, more than 15.7 million units of the Omni have been sold), the company will pull the plug on the budget-end van.

Bhargava has hinted that the Eeco, which is the more modern of the two people-carriers, would replace the Omni. This means that the repurposed Versa, which is, in turn, based on the tenth-gen Super Carry, would feature a BSVI-compliant engine, new dashboard and structural upgrades to attain compliance with BNVSAP’s crash test norms.