Maruti launches Suzuki's Ecstar lubes and car care products in India

Maruti Suzuki India has launched the Ecstar brand of lubricants, coolant and car care products in the domestic market. Ecstar is developed by its Japanese parent company Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) and will initially be available at Nexa service workshops.

Ecstar, which has been a prominent engine oil brand for Suzuki in its home market, was first launched in Japan in 1984. Since 2015, the brand has been marketed globally and is currently sold in around 25 markets including the US, Mexico, Australia, South East Asia and Europe. 

While the Ecstar range is currently being manufactured for Suzuki by Japanese lubricant giant, Idemitsu, at its Japan and Thailand facilities, for India, Suzuki aims to source the oils from local vendors, three of which it has identified and approved.  

With an expansive range of engine oils, which also caters to the two-wheeler market, the global brand has been jointly launched in conjunction with Suzuki's two-wheeler arm in the country, Suzuki Motorcycle India. 

Maruti Suzuki will supply the Ecstar range to its workshops as genuine spares, bearing the tag of a Maruti Genuine Product (MGP). The products will be introduced first in the Nexa Service workshops and gradually across all of Maruti's 3,000 regular workshops in its countrywide network.

The lubes and other products, which include injector cleaners, coolants, transmission fluids, car shampoos, tyre and trim dressers, will also become available in regular spare shops outside of the company's dealer network, as MGP supply.

Engine oils for both PVs and two-wheelers
The range of lubricants will comprise fully synthetic engine oils for all engine options in Maruti's car line-up, as well as for the motorcycle offerings in India from Suzuki. The engine oils on offer for petrol cars include a 0W20 fully synthetic grade, suitable to go into Maruti's host of petrol engines, including the 800cc, 1.0-litre, 1.2-litre and 1.4-litre K-series powerplants. On the diesel front, there is a 5W30 fully synthetic oil, which will be used for the ubiquitous 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine, powering sizeable number of models in the carmaker's portfolio.

For motorcycles, there is a 10W40 grade oil, especially developed for the Suzuki Gixxer and other higher- capacity motorcycles from the company's stable. Ecstar lubricants also see extensive usage in Suzuki's MotoGP team, which was also renamed to be called Team Suzuki Ecstar in 2015. The motorcycle care products on offer include chain cleaners, chain lubes and anti-rust coatings.

Speaking at the launch of the new brand, Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director, Maruti Suzuki India (pictured above), said, "We have been bringing a range of new models and technologies to India. To ensure optimum performance of these new technologies, we are now bringing a range of Suzuki global engine oils and lubricants. These products have undergone rigorous testing under extreme conditions and offer great peace of mind to customers.”

RS Kalsi, senior executive director (Marketing and Sales), Maruti Suzuki India, added: "Ecstar products have been rigorously tested for Maruti Suzuki engines to up to 8,000 hours and 160,000km. We aim to reinforce customer satisfaction levels with this new range of high performance products validated by Maruti Suzuki."

Maruti says that Ecstar oil has gone through rigorous tests to ensure good performance in all conditions. That includes high speed and full power tests (to evaluate oil performance under high shear and high thermal load conditions); deposit test (to evaluate influence of deposits formed on various engine parts) and friction test and brake specific fuel consumption or BSFC mapping (to measure friction loss behavior and efficiency improvement).

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