All-new 2020 Hyundai i20 turbo petrol & twin clutch automatic gearbox spied in India

The all-new Hyundai i20 Elite is slated for launch in India during November this year. The third generation i20 Elite will have a completely revamped design on the outside, in-line with Hyundai’s latest design philosophy. What will excite a lot of Hyundai fans and prospective i20 owners in India is the possibility of the premium hatchback getting a powerful turbo petrol engine-twin clutch automatic gearbox combination.

Image courtesy RahulAutoSpy

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A test car with precisely this set-up was spotted on Indian roads, giving rise to speculations that Hyundai is considering a ‘hot hatch’ version of the all-new, 2020 i20 for India. Other possibilities of course is that Hyundai India is testing this engine-gearbox combination for export markets, or for a launch in the high performance i20 N-Line trim in India at a later stage.

Notably, this engine gearbox combination is already on offer in the Hyundai Venue sub-4 meter compact SUV, and is very popular among buyers. The 1 liter-3 cylinder turbocharged petrol engine makes 118 Bhp of peak power and 172 Nm of peak torque. On Hyundai cars sold in India such as the Venue, Grand i10 NIOS and the Aura, this engine is offered with a 6 speed manual gearbox as standard.

On higher trims of the Venue, buyers get the option of a 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearbox as well. If offered on the all-new Hyundai i20 sold in India, this combination will be a unique set-up in the premium hatchback segment given the fact that the last such car to offer a similar combination – the Volkswagen Polo GT TSI – no longer offers a twin clutch automatic gearbox.

Globally, Hyundai offers the 1 liter turbo petrol engine mated to the 7 speed DCT twin clutch automatic gearbox on the all-new i20’s N-Line model.

The i20 N-Line is a sporty iteration of the all-new, 3rd generation i20, and features revised body work, stiffer suspension and of course, the sporty engine-gearbox combination. If launched in India, the Hyundai i20 N-Line will be the first in the illustrious range of N-Line models that Hyundai sells internationally. So far, Hyundai has focused on the mass market in India, never really venturing into the sporty car variant space. Rivals such as Maruti Suzuki, Fiat and Tata Motors have launched sporty car variants such as the Baleno RS, Abarth Punto and Tiago  JTP respectively, with limited success.

The standard version of the all-new 2020 Hyundai i20 Elite is likely to be offered with two engine options: a 1.2 liter-4 cylinder naturally aspirated petrol with 84 Bhp-114 Nm and a 1.5 liter-4 cylinder turbocharged diesel with 99 Bhp-240 Nm.

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