The automatic version of Hyundai's popular premium hatchback, the Elite i20, seems to be inching close to its launch in India. Some of the dealerships of the company have started accepting bookings for the model.
Interestingly, the South Korean auto-maker has not revealed any date for the launch of the Elite i20 automatic. The company is expected to launch the Elite i20 petrol automatic in September and the deliveries likely to commence by mid-September, reported Autocar India.
As rumoured earlier, the Elite i20 automatic would come with a new petrol engine. Currently, the Elite i20 in India is sold with a 1.2 litre petrol engine and a 1.4 litre CRDi diesel motor. While the petrol engine of Elite i20 can churn out 82bhp of power and peak torque of 114Nm, the diesel motor is tuned to generate 89bhp of power and peak torque of 220Nm.
The petrol automatic of the Elite i20 will come powered by a 1.4-litre petrol engine that is tuned to churn out 98bhp. It was reported earlier that the Elite i20 is likely to get automatic gearbox in two variants. While the first one is likely to be the top-variant Asta, the second could be the mid- variant Asta or Sportz.
No changes will be made to the current version of the Elite i20 as far as the style and design are concerned. It was being said that Hyundai could miss out on some of the features in the Elite i20 in the automatic variants to keep the price in check.
Hyundai Elite i20 hit the Indian roads in August 2014. The company has since sold over 2 lakh units of the car in the country. The automatic variant of the Elite i20 has been awaited for some time now, since its prime rivals, Honda Jazz and Maruti Suzuki Baleno, came with CVT gearbox on the petrol variants.