Kia Seltos: How and why are its engines powering a host of cars

Even after being a new brand, Kia has managed to position itself as a worthy competitor in the Indian market. The Seltos has proven to be a successful product for the Indian market. One of the many reasons is the engine options that it offers. You could get the Seltos with 1.5-litre petrol, 1.5-litre diesel and a 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine. And you could get all the engines with some kind of automatic transmission. So, there is something for everyone.


Being a sister company to the Hyundai, these engines are being shared with a variety of cars from Hyundai. These engines are currently being offered with Creta and Seltos. The Venue and the upcoming Sonnet shares the detuned version of the 1.5-litre diesel engine. In 2019, Hyundai launched the facelift of the Elantra only with petrol, the 1.5-litre diesel engine from the Seltos is expected to come with the diesel version of the Elantra which may launch soon.
So, why do these engines from the Seltos are powering a host of cars? 

BS6 compliant

For starters, all three engines are BS6 compliant. And according to Kia, the BS6 Seltos diesel has been tested for 1 lakh kilometer with BS4 fuel. So, it is safe to think that the engines are pretty reliable in the long run.

Economies of scale

Then there are the economies of scale that will help the manufacturer. Hyundai and Kia are trying to do what Maruti Suzuki already achieved with the engines by mass producing them and offering them in all of their cars. By mass-producing the engines, Kia and Hyundai would be able to make a proportionate saving in costs.

Range of configurations

All the three engines are available with some kind of automatic transmission and the engines can be detuned also. Because of this, the manufacturer can use the same engine on the Seltos, Creta and Venue too. But the difference comes in the power outputs where the Seltos and Creta produce 115PS, the Venue produces 100PS because Hyundai has detuned the engine in favour of fuel efficiency.
The 1.5-litre petrol can be mated to a CVT transmission, 1.5-litre diesel can be mated to a 6-speed torque converter and the 1.4-turbo petrol can opt with the 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. And all these engines also come with manual gearboxes. All of this gives the the buyers a variety of combinations to choose from. Everyone can choose some engine and gearbox options that suits them.
These are some of the reasons that these engines are powering many cars from both the Korean manufacturers and we know that their future cars will also be powered by some version of these engines only. This is also quite beneficial for the consumers as they would have many options of engines and gearboxes to choose from and eventually, the manufacturers would be able to place these cars more competitively in the market.