Within a year of launching its maiden sports-utility-vehicle Grand Vitara XL-7, Maruti Udyog Ltd on Monday rolled out an upgraded version of the vehicle.

The new variant has been priced at Rs 16.98 lakh (Rs 1.70 million) [ex-showroom, Delhi], costlier by Rs 21,000, Maruti director (sales) K Saito told a news conference in New Delhi.

The new SUV will be powered with a 166 brake horse power engine, making it the most powerful SUV in India, the company claimed. The earlier variant had a maximum power output of 154 bhp.

Maruti entered the growing SUV segment in April this year with the introduction of Grand Vitara XL-7, the first vehicle to be launched by Maruti after Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan took management control in May 2002.

The Grand Vitara is being imported as a completely-built-unit from SMC.      

Asked how many units of the new vehicle the company aims to sell, he said, "We have sold 150 units of the SUV since April this year. I do not want to hazard a guess and since the car is being brought as CBU, we are flexible enough to take care of the demands."

He said the diesel and automatic version of the car might be launched if there was a demand.