Hyundai Elite i20 Automatic launch timeframe revealed; To take on Baleno CVT

Hyundai India will soon introduce the i20 Elite Automatic, based on the facelifted car. It’ll be officially launched  in India during May 2018, as a Maruti Baleno CVT rival. The Elite i20 will be offered with an all-new CVT automatic  gearbox. This gearbox will be offered on the 1.2 liter VTVT petrol engine that produces a peak power of 82 Bhp and a peak torque of 115 Nm. The same engine also gets a 5 speed manual gearbox. The Elite i20 is likely to be sold in two variants – Sportz and Asta. Expect prices of the automatic variant to start from about Rs. 7.5 lakhs.

The regular variants of the Elite i20 Facelift is priced at Rs. 5.35 lakhs, while the top-end diesel costs Rs. 9.15 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi. The diesel engine of the car is the tried and tested 1.4 liter turbocharged CRDI motor with  89 Bhp of peak power and 220 Nm of peak torque.

A 6 speed manual gearbox is offered as standard with the diesel  motor, and Hyundai has no plans to offer an automatic variant on the diesel models. The Elite i20 Facelift gets  various changes on the outside, and a few changes on the inside as well.

The Hyundai i20 Elite is India’s second best selling premium hatchback, after the Maruti Baleno. The introduction of  automatic variants on the petrol version is likely to boost sales as the previous petrol-automatic variant was quite  pricey, making it unattractive to buyers, who instead shifted to the Baleno CVT.

Hyundai’s Managing Director, YK Koo, expects the automatic variants to command a significant share of sales, and has also hinted that the new variants would be much cheaper than the now-discontinued 1.4 petrol automatic,

The share of the 1.4-litre automatic among the overall i20 sales was only 2 percent earlier. With the 1.2-litre CVT,  we see the share surging to 10-15 percent. The old i20 was very expensive since both the 1.4 engine and the torque converter were imported. I think the price will be more competitive since we are developing the unit locally and we have the tax benefit as well.

Via ACI