Hyundai i20 1.2L Petrol Vs 1.5L Diesel Acceleration Run, 0-100 kmph Tested

Hyundai i20 in its new-gen avatar is doing pretty well on the sales chart. Although the new-gen i20 is priced a little higher than all of its rivals, it is managing to garner impressive numbers for bookings. Like other Hyundai cars, the South-Korean carmaker has used the same formula of multiple engine-gearbox options and super-long features list here. Interestingly, it has helped the i20 with a great start. It is offered with a total of 3 engine options and 5 transmission choices. This time around, we thought of putting the highest-selling configurations against each other in a 0-100 kmph acceleration run. For this test, we had the 1.2L Kappa motor with a 5-speed MT and the 1.5L oil burner with a 6-speed MT.

The 1.2L Kappa unit is a 4-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol motor, and it pushes out a rated power output of 83 PS and max torque of 113 Nm. The 1.5L turbo-diesel, on the other hand, is capable of developing 100 PS against 240 Nm. With engines warmed up enough to put their best, we gave the cars a go. In the first attempt, the petrol trim took 13.83 seconds to reach the 100 mark kmph from a standstill, whereas the diesel trim took 11.92 seconds to do the same.

Another attempt was made where the petrol motor accelerated the i20 to 100 kmph mark in 13.47 seconds, while the diesel engine did so in just 11.87 seconds. The third and final attempt followed a similar suite too, as the petrol variant of the i20 took 13.21 seconds for the 0-100 kmph sprint, while the diesel variant took only 11.23 seconds.

With this test, it is pretty clear that the higher power and torque figures of the 1.5L diesel engine help the i20 accelerate faster to the 100 kmph mark in contrast to the petrol variant. However, there’s another petrol engine available with the i20 – 1.0L turbo-petrol. It boasts of a peak power output of 120 PS and max torque of 172 Nm. In our earlier tests, it managed to do the 0-100 kmph sprint in 11 seconds flat. This turbo-petrol motor is available with two engine options – 6-speed iMT and 7-speed DCT.