Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue - Which SUV will be the best option for you?

Last year was a busy time for the SUV segment with several long-anticipated launches of new entrants. Some of the new SUVs have become a hit in the market, grabbing a big chunk of market share within a short time. Two among these hot-selling SUVs are the Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue. These two cars are competing in two different segments. While the Kia Seltos is sweeping the mid-sized SUV segment, Hyundai Venue boasts a dominant position among the sub-four-meter SUVs. Even though these two SUVs are of two different segments, the price of the top-spec Hyundai Venue still overlaps with that of the entry-level Kia Seltos. For this reason, some customers will be split among the buying bigger Kia Seltos and opting for a well-equipped Hyundai Venue. IndianAuto will give you the detailed comparison between these two models to see which car, Kia Seltos or Hyundai Venue will be your perfect fit.

1. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Introduction

Launched last year on August 22, Kia Seltos has quickly grasped the attention of the Indian customers. Shortly after its debut, Kia Seltos became the best-selling model in its class, beating the long-reigning Hyundai Creta which is also its siblings produced by its mother company, Hyundai. Kia Seltos’ success is the result of an effective marketing campaign, and more importantly, a great combination of stunning design, competitive pricing, and attractive offering.

On the other hand, Hyundai Venue is competing in the sub-four-meter space. With its strong capability, the Hyundai Venue has challenged the current segment-leading Maruti Brezza and given other sub-4-meter models a hard time. Hyundai Venue’s emerging popularity can be contributed to several factors including butch-looking design, feature-rich interior and various advanced connectivity functions.

Putting these two SUVs from two different segment side by side will be an interesting comparison which will be covered in the following.

2. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Dimension:

As mentioned above, Kia Seltos is positioned as a compact SUV and is directly rivalling the Hyundai Creta. On the other hand, the Hyundai Venue is sitting under the Hyundai Creta and located in the sub-four-meter segment. The dissimilarity of positioning comes down to significant differences in size. Kia Seltos wins hand-down over the Hyundai Venue in regard to the dimensions.

Measuring 4315mm, Kia Seltos is 320 mm longer than the Hyundai Venue. The width and the height of this compact SUV is also larger than the Venue’s by 30mm and 15 mm respectively. The advantage of having larger dimensions also benefit the Kia Seltos with a longer wheelbase and bigger boot space.

3. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Design

3.1. Exterior comparison

Both of the two SUVs are praised for their good-looking design. These cars showcased a modern and stylish exterior. Even though each car features its own distinctive language design which is in line with their respective carmaker, they still crosses each other at some point. For example, both cars come with split headlight setting which is currently on trend in the SUV segment. They also share some popular SUV-ish design elements like black plastic wheel cladding, roof rails, and impressive stance.

Apart from these similarities, each car comes with different styling. Kia Seltos gets the tiger-nose grille while the Venue inherits the cascading grille from the Hyundai family. It is also noteworthy that while the Kia Seltos pursues a neat and smart styling, the Hyundai Venue is designed to look butch and rugged. All in all, we don’t have many things to complain about the design of the Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue. To be honest, both cars are equally good looking and it’s all up to your own preference to decide which one is more appealing in terms of appearance.

3.2. Interior comparison

 The above-segment Kia Seltos features a premium and plush interior which made use of high-quality materials. At first sight, it is easy to notice some fine elements like soft-touch leather covering the steering wheels, gear lever and door pad. Notably, it also features a flat-bottom steering wheel which is usually expected on the above segment. When experiencing the Kia Seltos, you will easily fall under the charm of its high level of refinement. Kia Seltos interior is available in two colour schemes, all-black and dual-tone. The latter is available on the GT Line. 

4. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Features:

In terms of features, both Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue are all well-equipped with a load of equipment. However, it might not be fair to compete the top-spec Kia Seltos with the top-spec Hyundai Venue since the prices of these models are widely different. So to have a fair competition, we will put the low variant Kia Seltos and top-spec Hyundai Venue into comparison. With respect to the pricing, IndianAuto will compare two variants from two models that are priced closely, for example, Kia Seltos HTE vs Hyundai Venue SX Dual Tone, and the Kia Seltos HTK vs Hyundai Venue SX.

4.1. Safety features comparison

• Kia Seltos HTE vs Hyundai Venue SX Dual Tone (both diesel): At this price level, the Hyundai Venue and Kia Seltos shares standard safety features like dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors, front seat belt reminder, seatbelt pretensioners, high-speed alert, and ISOFIX mounts. However, the high-trim SX has several features which are not available on the entry-level Seltos HTE – Day night IRVM and reversing camera, impact sensing auto door unlock.

Kia Seltos Interior

• Kia Seltos HTK vs Hyundai Venue SX Opt (both diesel): Moving up to the higher price range, we will have the pair of Seltos HTK and Venue SX Opt. The Kia Seltos HTK is slightly pricier than the SX by Rs 35,000. However, the Venue SX Opt still has an advantage in terms of features. The SX Opt is equipped with Day and Night IRVM, 2 side airbags, electronic stability control (ESC), hill assist control (HAC), and vehicle stability management (VSM).

• Kia Seltos HTE vs Hyundai Venue SX Dual Tone Turbo (both petrol): These two variants are priced at Rs 9.69 lakh. The differences in safety offering in this range is similar to that of the corresponding diesel variants.

4.2. Comfort features comparison

Considering the comfort, the Hyundai Venue continues to excel the Kia Seltos within a similar price level.

• Kia Seltos HTE vs Hyundai Venue SX Dual Tone (both diesel and petrol): Hyundai Venue is better equipped with an 8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto compatibility, voice recognition, electric sunroof, driver window auto up-down, leather seat upholstery, electrically adjustable ORVMs as well as driver rearview monitor, electrically foldable ORVMs. It also gets comfort features like chilled glovebox, cruise control, adjustable rear headrests, front armrest with storage, rear parcel tray, USB charger, turn-indicators-integrated ORVMs.

Hyundai Venue Interior

• Kia Seltos HTK vs Hyundai Venue SX Opt: Some notable features that are provided on the Hyundai Venue are adjustable rear headrests, leather seat upholstery, voice recognition, electric sunroof, cruise control, push-button start/stop, electrically foldable ORVMs, as well as auto climate control, air purifier, chilled glovebox, rear wipe and wash, rear parcel tray, 60:40 split rear seat, sliding front armrest with storage, rear armrest with cup-holders. It also offers some entertaining features like HD infotainment display, Hyundai Blue Link connectivity system, and wireless phone charger.

5. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Engine Specs

5.1. Petrol 

From the beginning, the Kia Seltos has offering a wide range of powertrain options. It comes with two petrol engine options, 1.5-litre and a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine. The power output of these engines are 113 PS/144 Nm and 138 PS/242 Nm respectively.  Both engines get a standard 6-speed manual gearbox but each is offered with a different automatic option. For example, the turbo petrol can be mated to a 7-speed DCT while the 1.5-litre engine is offered with a CVT option.

Similarly, Hyundai Venue also gets two petrol options, 1.2-litre petrol and a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol. The 1.0-litre petrol engine churns out 120 PS of top power and 172 Nm of maximum torque. It comes with a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. This turbocharged petrol unit is only offered from the S variant onwards. On the other hand, the top-spec SX Opt is mated exclusively to the manual gearbox only. The less powerful 1.2-litre engine is available on the lower-range E and S variant. This engine is good for 83PS/115Nm.

5.2. Diesel 

Each vehicle comes with one diesel engine option. Hyundai Venue diesel receives power from a 1.4-litre unit which produces a top power of 90 PS and peak torque of 220 Nm. With the diesel range, Hyundai only offer the manual gearbox.

Kia Seltos also offer one diesel engine, a 1.5-litre unit. This engine is good for 115 PS and 250 Nm. However, Kia Seltos offers both manual and automatic gearbox for the diesel variants.

6. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Top Speed

Both the Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue do not reveal the specs of top speed and 0-100 kmph acceleration. However, some drivers have a chance to experience these cars and can give us some insight of the performance of these models. It appears that Kia Seltos is quicker and offers higher top speed. While the diesel and non-turbocharged petrol engine of the Kia Seltos is estimated to reach the top speed of around 170 kmph, the respective option on the Hyundai Venue is likely to reach 150 kmph at its maximum speed. The turbocharged petrol on the Kia Seltos enables the car to increase the top speed to 185 kmph. On the Hyundai Venue’s turbocharged petrol, the maximum speed is around 180 kmph.

7. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Mileage

With respect to the fuel economy, the Hyundai Venue shows better result. On the petrol range, the turbocharged petrol version can deliver a fuel mileage of 18.27 kmpl while its naturally aspirated engine can return 17.52 kmpl. Kia Seltos’s fuel mileage is rated at 16.8 kmpl and 16.2 kmpl, respectively.

On the diesel range, Hyundai continues to have an upper hand over the Kia Seltos. The Venue’s diesel engine can return a fuel mileage of 23.7 kmpl which is higher than that of the automatic and manual version of the Kia Seltos diesel. The fuel efficiency of Kia Seltos’s automatic-diesel and manual-diesel version are rated at 17.8 kmpl and 20.8kmpl respectively.

8. Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Venue Road Price

The ex-showroom price of the Kia Seltos ranges from Rs 9.89 lakh to Rs 17.34 lakh. The on-road price of the entry-level is priced at Rs 11.09 lakh and the top-spec GTX Plus AT’s on-road price is rated at Rs 20.4 lakh. Hyundai Venue, on the other hand, is priced from Rs 6.7 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh (ex-showroom) and the on-road price goes from Rs 8.34 lakh to Rs 13.28 lakh.

9. Kia Seltos: Other Competitors

Kia Seltos’s direct rivals include Hyundai  Creta, Nissan Kicks, Renault Duster, and Maruti Suzuki S-Cross. Other SUVs that are not coming from the same segment but priced similarly are Hyundai Venue, Tata Harrier and MG Hector.

10. Hyundai Venue: Other Competitions 

Hyundai Venue is competing against the likes of Maruti Brezza, Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport and Mahindra XUV300.