Maruti Udyog Ltd, India's largest carmaker, unveiled on Thursday a new-look Zen, without tinkering with the price, to take on competition posed by Hyundai's Santro and Tata Motors' Indica.

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Three versions of the car -- LX, LXi and VXi -- would sport introductory price tags of Rs 330,000, Rs 350,000 and Rs 390,000 respectively, Maruti managing director Jagdish Khattar told a news conference in New Delhi.

Maruti, which is 54.2 per cent owned by Suzuki Motor Corp of Japan, was also working on an altogether new car, he said, declining to give details.

The introduction of new Zen, which has been developed at a cost of Rs 35-40 crore (Rs 350-400 million), was a step towards turning Maruti into a R&D hub for premium compact cars in Asia.

"We are working towards making our Indian operation a R&D hub for premium small cars in Asia. SMC and Maruti engineers are working closely to develop a new car," Khattar said.

Asked which segment the new car would belong to, he said "I cannot give the details, but the car will be in the mass volume category".

The launch of new-look Zen, and efforts of Maruti and SMC engineers to develop a new car were steps in the direction of shifting of R&D base here by 2007-08, he said.