Korean auto-major and India’s second-largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motors on Tuesday took the wraps off their new hatchback the i10 NIOS, the third-generation of their compact vehicle. The carmaker which has also seen a decline in sales along with the rest of the industry, believes that new launches ahead of the festive season alongside attractive new offers will entice customers. The i10 NIOS is the first launch of several new cars in the coming few days including Hyundai’s sister company Kia’s entry into India with the Seltos, Maruti-Suzuki’s new XL6, Renault’s Triber and BMW launching the latest iteration of its iconic 3-series. The i10 NIOS has been priced between Rs 4,99,990 to Rs 7,13,950 for the petrol model and between Rs 6,70,090 to Rs 7,99,450 for the diesel model, ex-showroom, all-India.
Hyundai India managing Director, SS Kim said that 2019 has been a ’big year’ for Hyundai with the launches of the second-generation Santro, the Venue SUV, the first electric SUV in the Kona and now the new i10. “We have become India’s leader in the SUV segment after the Venue and have the most comprehensive SUV range,” Kim told The Pioneer, “and we expect that our hatchback customers will also be excited with this fascinating new NIOS.” The NIOS will feature both a petrol and diesel engine and Hyundai has made it clear that unlike market-leader Maruti-Suzuki, they will keep manufacturing diesel engines even after Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) norms come into force on April 1, 2020. However on the NIOS, only the petrol engine is currently BS6 compatible and the diesel engine will be made BS6 compatible in early 2020.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Je-Ruk Chun, Head of Engine Performance Test Group, Hyundai Motor Company said that this is because of pricing reasons, as meeting BS6 emission norms requires significant modifications to engines. To keep costs down, the new NIOS will also feature a new Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) option instead of a traditional automatic transmission (AT). Hyundai executives admitted that an AT is better than an AMT, but the AMT is significantly cheaper and their experience with the AMT on the Santro has been generally positive and the company expects that reaction to the AMT on the NIOS will be positive as well.
