There is a lot of talk about the diesel engines in the near future, here in the Indian market. Rumours suggest that brands will walk away from diesel-powered cars in a bid to move towards electrification of the car industry, and also the BSVI investments on diesel engines will not make business sense. But then, we don’t see this happening as there is still a huge demand for diesel cars. Now, the latest rumour is that the Hyundai Venue compact-SUV will get the diesel engine which has debuted in the Kia Seltos.
Kia has introduced a BSVI ready diesel engine in the Seltos. This 1.5L, 4-cylinder, turbocharged oil-burning engine produces 115 PS of power and 250 Nm of torque matched to a 6-speed manual gearbox and also comes with a 6-speed torque converter automatic. The Hyundai Venue currently has a 1.4L, 4-cylinder diesel engine which is BSIV compliant. This could be swapped with the engine seen in Kia, as Hyundai & Kia are going to share platform and engines in the future for cost efficiency. With this motor, the Hyundai Venue would get a well deserved bump in power, and will attract more enthusiastic drivers.
The Hyundai Venue rivals the likes of Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Ford EcoSport and the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. The Venue has been selling like hot cakes, and has taken the top spot in the segment as well.
However, with this new engine producing more power and also being BS6 compliant, the Hyundai Venue will also see a noticeable bump in pricing. This could happen close to the April 2020 deadline for all cars in India to switch to BSVI emission norms. For reference, one can assume a price hike of around INR 50,000 – 80,000 on diesel cars.
BSVI diesel cars will come fit with LNT and DPF where LNT will reduce NO & NO2 emissions and DPF will reduce the particulate emissions. This is an expensive hardware, and hence, the increase in price.