TURBO-CRACY
FUN-TO-DRIVE COULD SOON BECOME THE NORM rather than the exception. Nothing in recent memory has promised to shake up the world of the automotive enthusiast than what we are currently witnessing — and Hyundai India has emerged at the forefront. We are talking about turbos, specifically turbo-petrol engines. Yes, they have been around for a really long time, but factors like cost and affordability meant they were never front and centre on the Indian buyers' mind. In fact, some manufacturers have even gone on to say turbo-petrols are too expensive to make and too expensive to run and even claimed there wasn’t enough demand to put these high-tech engines into production in India. And now Hyundai is proving them wrong!
Hyundai has taken it upon itself to reshape the automotive space in India, especially for us enthusiasts. Hyundai is not the first to offer a turbo-petrol but they’re the first to go through the time, effort and expense to locally manufacture the 1.0 turbo charged direct-injection petrol engine in India. This is the most high-tech petrol engine to be manufactured in India and the acceptance for it has been far better than anticipated, encouraging India's second largest carmaker to offer it across their core models. It started with the Hyundai Venue that was launched last year and continues with turbo-petrol variants being offered in the Aura, the Grand i10 Nios, the Creta and now the Verna. The upcoming i20 will receive a turbo-petrol motor as well. Hyundai India have found a way to make turbopetrols successful in the market — something other marquees have never really been able to achieve.
Stricter BS6 emission norms have, in many ways, necessitated the move but the company has done a lot more than just introduce cleaner powertrains to the Indian market. Hyundai has introduced the Indian automotive enthusiast to affordable, fun, performance-oriented turbo-petrol powered cars. 'Turbo' is the new buzzword for enthusiast-friendly cars. Currently there are two turbo-petrol engines in the company's lineup – a 1-litre, three-cylinder unit in two different states of tune (100bhp in the Aura and Grand i10 NIOS and 120bhp in the Venue and Verna) and a 1.4-litre, four cylinder unit producing 140bhp (in the Creta). More importantly, Hyundai India have democratised turbo-petrols by way of six key attributes apart from the engines themselves.