2020 Hyundai i20 Turbo Petrol and Diesel Acceleration Test – Diesel MT Faster than Petrol DCT?

The new generation of the Hyundai i20 has been recently introduced in the Indian market. To offer an engine-gearbox combination for almost every type of buyer, the Hyundai i20 is available five engine-gearbox configurations. At our disposal, we had the diesel and turbo-petrol variants. While the former was mated to a 6-speed stick shift, the latter comes coupled to a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic. The turbo-petrol motor and the 7-speed DCT is a combination that shouts out performance louder than most. The diesel motor too is the most powerful in its segment with 100 PS and 240 Nm of peak output. Thus, we thought of putting them neck to neck against each other. The idea was to check which one of these two variants is faster to 100 kmph from a standstill.

To ensure the correctness up to last decimal places, a total of 3 attempts were made. In the first attempt, the diesel-powered i20 took 11.92 seconds, while the turbo-petrol motor with its rated output of 120 PS and 172 Nm took 11.15 seconds. All-set for the second run, the cars were launched with even higher enthusiasm. This time around, the oil burner took 11.87 seconds to reach the 100 kmph mark, whereas the turbocharged motor did the same in 11.12 seconds. The final run, however, showed a different character of the driver and the cars, as the diesel-propelled i20 showed the 100 kmph mark on the speedo in just 11.23 seconds. The turbo-petrol trim, on the other hand, did the same in 11 seconds flat.

With this test, it is evident that the Turbo variant of the all-new i20 can do a quick sprint to 100 kmph from a standstill. The diesel trim isn’t any bad either with a difference of only 0.23 seconds. However, there’s another engine option that is offered with the new-gen i20 – 1.2L Kappa motor. It is a 4-cylinder naturally-aspirated motor that develops a peak power output of 88 PS and max torque of 113 Nm. It can be had with either a 5-speed MT or a CVT. Moreover, the turbo-petrol motor can also be had mated to a 6-speed iMT.