On the 7th of August, the local subsidiary of Kia Motors, the premium South Korean carmaker owned by Hyundai Motor Group, revealed the production-spec Sonet, months after the concept version was put on display at the Auto Expo 2020. The Kia Seltos will become a direct rival of the Maruti Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, and Hyundai Venue. However, it’s worth mentioning here that the Kia Sonet has been derived from the Hyundai Venue and shares its platform and engines with the sub-4-meter Hyundai compact SUV. That said, what’s of interest here is that other than getting all the engine-transmission options of the Venue, it even gets the diesel engine available on the Seltos.
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| Engine | Power | Torque | Transmission |
| 1.2-litre petrol | 83 PS | 115 Nm | 5-speed manual |
| 1.0-litre turbo petrol | 120 PS | 172 Nm | 6-speed iMT, 7-speed DCT automatic |
| 1.5-litre turbo diesel | 100 PS | 240 Nm | 6-speed manual |
| 1.5-litre turbo diesel | 115 PS | 250 Nm | 6-speed automatic |
If you look at the Hyundai Venue and the Creta, you’ll notice that both the SUVs share the same 1.5-litre diesel engine, albeit, in varying states of tune. For the Venue, the diesel engine offers 100 PS and 240 Nm and comes mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. The same diesel engine outputs 115 PS and 250 Nm on the Hyundai Creta and is available with a 6-speed manual transmission and a 6-speed automatic unit.
For the Kia Sonet, however, the 1.5-litre diesel engine will be available in both the power tunes. The diesel-manual variants will get the 100PS/240Nm version of this motor, while the diesel-automatic variants will get the 115PS/250Nm variant. The former will come with a 6-speed manual transmission, while the latter will be available with a 6-speed torque converter unit. It must be mentioned here that unlike the Seltos, the Sonet won’t get the 115PS/250Nm 1.5-litre diesel unit with a manual transmission unit.
Other engine options of the Kia Sonet will include two petrol motors. The less powerful of the two is a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine that offers 83PS and 115Nm. It comes mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. The more powerful version will be a 1.0-litre unit that will churn out 120PS of maximum power and 172Nm of peak torque. Transmission options for this engine will include a 6-speed iMT and a 7-speed DCT unit. The former is a clutchless manual transmission that recently debuted on the Venue. In all the variants, power will be transmitted to the front wheels and AWD won’t be available even as an option.
