Published : 11 March 2023
Read Time : 5 min
Author: Mahesh Yadav
Recently a short video clip of the Kia Sonet spotted testing in Pune, Maharashtra. The car was wearing red number plates and carrying testing equipment behind it. The video also confirms that the car in question is the X-Line variant of the Sonet. This variant is available with the turbo petrol and diesel engine but only with automatic transmission.
With the X-Line turbo petrol engine, it gets ‘7DCT’ badging while the X-Line diesel gets the ‘AUTO’ badging on the front fenders. While it’s not relevant in the case of the X-Line variant, it’s worth mentioning that the Sonet’s variants with the turbo petrol engine and the auto-clutch manual transmission (ACMT) get ‘iMT’ badging.
It’s clearly visible that the Sonet variant undergoing testing in this case has the ‘AUTO’ badging. So, it’s understandably the diesel-automatic powertrain testing by ARAI. It’s possible that this is going through the BS6 phase-2 testing for the diesel-auto powertrain and it could soon go on sale with the necessary updates.
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The confusion around this test car being a CNG powertrain arises from the fact that we’ve seen the Dzire with similar kit hanging from the back a few months before it got the CNG powertrain. While it’s likely to help the Sonet with sales if it gets the CNG kit, there’s a chance that it could also negatively impact the Sonet brand.
Also Read: Kia Sonet CNG 1.0L Turbo Petrol Spied In April 2022
Some car buyers associate CNG with affordability and thus it dilutes the brand of a premium vehicle. Meanwhile, Toyota and Maruti Suzuki’s decision to offer factory CNG with their respective C-segment SUVs will help us gauge how the market perceives a big petrol-CNG SUV.
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