Kia Seltos: First car in India to offer 3 different AUTOMATIC transmissions!

Kia Motors will launch its first product in the Indian market later this year. The all-new SUV will be launched to suit the Indian road conditions. Kia has been testing the all-new Seltos in the market for a long time under heavy camouflage. During the official unveiling of the product, Kia revealed the engine and transmission details of the Seltos among other details like features.

The Kia Seltos will come with an exciting feature-list in the Indian market and many of them will be the first-in-segment features. Kia will also bring in a wide range of engine and transmission option with the Seltos. Kia has officially revealed that the Seltos will four different transmission options and out of them, three transmissions will be automatic.

It should be noted that the Seltos will also get three different engine options in the Indian market. There will be a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, a 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel engine and a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine that will be offered with the sporty GT Line variant of the car.

The 6-speed manual transmission will available with the 1.5-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engine options in the Seltos. The high-performance 1.4-litre turbocharged engine of the Seltos will only get the 7-speed DCT. Moreover, there will be Intelligent Variable Transmission, which is another term for Continuous Variable transmission and a torque-converter transmission available with the car too. However, Kia is yet to officially announce the exact combination of the engine and transmission. Below are the three different kinds of automatic transmissions available with the Kia Seltos and how different they are from each other.

7-speed Dual Clutch Transmission

Engine option: 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine

The 7-speed Dual Clutch automatic transmissions were mostly available with the high-end cars a few years back. But currently, many cars like the Vento and the Rapid from the Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Venue, Jeep Compass offer DCT. The dual-clutch automatic transmission uses two clutches instead of one and is very quick in shifting when compared to the automatic transmission options. The Dual-Clutch automatics are used with high-performance engines to maximize the performance and make the user experience better.

Conventional Torque Converter

Expected engine option: 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel engine

The conventional torque converters are quite popular among the enthusiasts for direct input of power. The torque converter automatic transmission is likely to be launched only with the turbocharged diesel engine of the Seltos. The torque converter transmission is not as fuel efficient as the CVT but it sure offers a better driving experience than the AMTs and CVTs.

Intelligent Variable Transmission (CVT)

Expected engine option: 1.5-litre petrol engine

IVT is the name given to the Continuous Variable Transmission. This kind of transmission offers an infinite number of gear ratios and can be very fuel efficient too. However, accelerating hard with the CVT can be a problem as the CVT automatics can give a rubber band effect under hard acceleration. This transmission will likely come with the 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine.