It isn’t a secret that Maruti Suzuki sells more cars in India every year than any other brand. Its popular models such as the Vitara Brezza, Swift, Dzire, WagonR, Alto and the Baleno bring home the major chunk of sales (all have clocked over 1 lakh sales in one year). However, the Celerio was never counted amongst the best performers. Not anymore! The company has confirmed that over the 2018-19 fiscal year, the Celerio clocked 1,03,734 sales. In other words, the hatchback managed to surpass the 1 lakh-sales in a year milestone for the first time ever.

Compared to its numbers in the previous fiscal year, 2017-18, the Celerio’s sales grew by nearly 10 per cent. Launched in 2014, the Celerio’s lifetime sales numbers are close to 4.7 lakh. In fact, it was the first Maruti Suzuki model to get Auto Gear Shift (AGS) transmission. Maruti Suzuki reports that nearly 31 per cent of customers bought AGS-equipped variants and that the top-spec ZXi accounts for 52 per cent of total sales. A factory-fitted CNG kit also plays an important part as 20 per cent of total Celerio sales comes from CNG variants.

In order to make the Celerio range compliant with the new safety norms, Maruti Suzuki recently upgraded the hatchback’s standard safety kit. No matter which variant you choose, the Celerio now gets a driver’s side front airbag, ABS, rear parking sensors, a speed alert system and seatbelt reminder for front seats. Because of the addition of extra features, the ex-showroom price has risen by up to Rs 15,000. Safety features such as front seatbelts with pretensioners and load limiters and front passenger-side airbag are available only with the optional trims of the Celerio.

In October 2017, Maruti Suzuki launched the mid-life update of the Celerio. About a month-and-a-half later, the carmaker introduced the CelerioX. In India, the Celerio range competes with the likes of the Tata Tiago, Datsun Go and the Renault Kwid. The company is likely to introduce the second-gen Celerio in 2020.