New Delhi, Apr 11: The country's largest car maker Maruti Udyog is getting aggressive about its diesel project now. The company is learnt to be in negotiations with Peugeot of France to set up a dedicated facility to manufacture diesel engines for passenger cars and sports utility vehicles. Maruti officials, however, refused to confirm or deny the move. “We have already announced plans to set up a diesel engine facility and various options are being considered,” the company spokesperson told ET.

Peugeot already supplies diesel engines to Maruti for the Zen and Esteem models. However, shortage of Peugeot engines have affected sales of the Zen diesel in the past. Suzuki officials have, meanwhile, said they want Maruti to have its own capability for the production of diesel engines. Sources, however, say that the two companies have already held initial round of discussions and another round of negotiations is planned for later this month. In the meantime, Maruti engineers are learnt to have visited various engine component manufacturers in India to check their readiness to meet the requirement of the proposed unit. “We had an initial round of negotiations with Maruti. However, nothing definite has been indicated by them so far,” said a senior official of a leading engine component maker. Bureau Report