Current Kia Seltos’s Turbo-petrol Engine To Be Temporarily Discontinued, New 1.5-litre Turbo Expected To Arrive In Facelifted SUV

• Kia Seltos will only get Hyundai Group’s new 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine option with the facelift. 

• Facelifted Seltos is expected to be launched in mid-2023. 

• Current-gen Seltos is likely to lose its turbo-petrol engine option before April. 

• Its 1.5-litre NA petrol and turbo diesel powertrains will be updated to RDE norms. 

• Updated Seltos will carry a price premium, facelifted model to be costlier still. 

Similar to every model on the market, the Kia Seltos is due for an important update. The government had set April as the deadline for carmakers to comply with RDE norms, and we expect the carmaker to launch its compact SUV with updated powertrains soon. However, for the time being, the Seltos is likely to be not offered with its 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engine as it’ll be phased out before the RDE norms kick in April. Later on, Kia will launch the facelifted Seltos that’s expected to bring back the turbo-petrol engine in the form of Hyundai Group’s new 1.5-litre GDI unit.

Hyundai Group’s new, more powerful engine 

The current Seltos gets three engine options – a 115PS 1.5-litre NA petrol engine, a 115PS 1.5-litre turbo-diesel unit and a 140PS 1.4-litre turbo-petrol unit. Of these, the NA petrol and diesel engines are likely to be updated in accordance with RDE norms soon, but the turbo-petrol engine option will not be updated. 

Instead, it’ll be replaced with a new, more powerful 1.5-litre turbo-petrol unit that’s likely to debut in the facelifted Seltos. This engine debuted in the Hyundai Alcazar and will be seen in all other Hyundai-Kia models that previously got the 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engine option as well as the new-gen Verna. 

MT: Manual Transmission. iMT: Clutchless Manual Transmission. DCT: Dual-clutch automatic transmission 

In the facelifted Setlos, the turbo-petrol engine will be offered with two gearbox options – a six-speed, clutchless manual transmission or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. 

Facelifted Kia Seltos 

Alongside the new engine option, the facelifted Kia Seltos will get a slew of updates such as revised front and rear-end styling, new alloy wheel options and a sleeker dual-screen layout inside. Know all about it in our stories linked below: 

• 2023 Facelifted Kia Seltos SUV Design Revealed In South Korea; India Launch Expected By Early 2023

• Kia Seltos, Sonet And Carens Diesel Variants To Lose Manual Gearbox In Lieu Of iMT

• Kia Carens To Get More Powerful 1.5-litre Turbo-petrol Engine With 6-speed iMT Gearbox

The 2023 Kia Seltos facelift gives us a lot to look forward to, but it’s going to be a while until the SUV arrives in India. In the meantime, the current Seltos will continue with updated, RDE-compliant and E20-ready NA petrol and diesel powertrains, rivalling the Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, MG Astor and Hyundai Creta.