On August 1, Indian Autos Blog featured a story in which we showed you a camouflaged Hyundai Eon that was caught testing in Tamil Nadu. We thought that Hyundai India was preparing a facelift for the Eon as various body panels were covered. However, our sources inform us on something different.
It seems that Hyundai India is testing the Eon with a 1.0-liter engine and the Korean car maker plans to launch this more powerful version of the small car in 2014. The 1.0-liter Eon will have a direct rival in the Maruti Alto K10, which according to rumors, is preparing for a facelift that could be launched by Diwali this year.
Hyundai is likely to use the 1.0-liter (998cc) three-cylinder petrol engine that also powers the base version of the Hyundai i10 for the European markets. This engine produces 68bhp at 6,200rpm 95Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. The heavier i10 with this engine is capable of sprinting from 0-100km/h in 14.8 seconds and has a top speed of 149km/h. However, we think Hyundai India would tune this engine to offer a compromise between performance and efficiency. For reference, the Alto K10 produces 68PS (about 67bhp) and 90Nm of torque. The current 800cc Eon will continue to compete with the Alto 800.
Hyundai India is looking to appeal to a wider audience through this variant extension. They hope that the 1.0-liter version would add to the Eon's sales which averaged 8,150 units for the first seven months of 2013.
