Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) is aggressively promoting its upcoming Celerio, which boats impressive fuel efficiency of 23.1 kilometers per litre (kmpl) and automatic transmission.

Celerio is a compact car that will cater to an increasing demand for vehicles with the Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) at an affordable price. It will be available in six petrol variants - four petrol variants with manual gear shift and two with automatic gear shift.

Like its predecessor A-Star (Alto), the Celerio has 1.0-liter KB10 petrol engine, which delivers 67 bhp at arte of 6,000 rpm and 9.1 kgm at rate of 3,500 rpm. The engine is mated to either new five-speed manual gearbox or an AMT.

Mayank Pareek, chief operating officer (marketing & sales) at Maruti Suzuki, said, "We thought if we could address these issues, we will be addressing a good segment of consumers who are looking for automatic transmission in mass segment."

However, he didn't elaborate on by how much the Maruti Celerio with ATM will cost. He just said that the difference will not be significant. Currently, a car with Automated Manual Transmission is more expensive by up to Rs. 1.1 lakh than its manual transmission variant.

Maruti Suzuki developed the EZDrive technology-equipped Celerio at an investment of around Rs 570 crore.

The country's largest car manufacturer by volume has already started bookings the Celerio for the interested buyers. The ne car is slated for launch on February 6, 2014.