BSVI Diesel Pricing Won’t Dig A Hole In Your Pocket – Kia Seltos The Proof

Kia Seltos’ expansive range tells us the BSVI diesel engines may not burn too much of your money as initially projected

With oil refineries pumping in huge sum of money to make the petrol and diesel fuels compliant with BSVI emission standards from April 2020 onwards, carmakers are not finding it the easy way around either. The BSVI fuels are refined to have very low sulphur content and every car produced during the era should have an on-board diagnostics device.

While upgrading the existing petrol engines is relatively easy as it can be performed through engine remapping and tuning the exhaust among other updates, the low sulphur content meant the diesel counterparts will need stronger build and use of specific components to ensure a longer lifespan and thus the upgrades do come at a big fortune.

Officials from top companies suggested that the BSVI diesel engines will have their prices increased compared to the BSIV units but they won’t be too dramatic to the point of being unattainable. As the small capacity diesel engines are being discontinued as they won’t make a definitive business case anymore, the price difference in the premium segments has started to come out.

Kia introduced the Seltos at a highly aggressive price point yesterday as it costs between Rs. 9.69 lakh and Rs. 15.99 lakh (ex-showroom, introductory). It competes in the mid-size SUV segment against a variety of rivals including Hyundai Creta, Tata Harrier, MG Hector and Jeep Compass.

The base HT E diesel variant of the Seltos is priced at Rs. 9.99 lakh (ex-showroom). The 1.5-litre four-cylinder CRDI turbocharged diesel engine produces 115 PS and 250 Nm and is mated to either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed torque converter transmission. Since the engine is being BSVI compliant, the bigger picture could be left understated.

It costs the same as Hyundai Creta BSIV diesel and is only Rs. 10,000 costlier than Nissan Kicks and Rs. 69,000 more expensive than the Renault Duster BSIV. The Seltos shatters the speculations that the BSVI diesel engines would cost Rs. 1-1.5 lakh more than their respective BSIV counterparts.

Compared to Tata Harrier with its 2.0-litre Kryotec BSIV engine, the Seltos 1.5-litre BSVI is Rs. 3 lakh least expensive and around Rs. 3.20 lakh cheaper than MG Hector using the same Fiat-sourced engine. The entry-level 2.2-litre Mahindra XUV500 diesel variant is Rs. 2.34 lakh costlier than the Seltos BSVI diesel as well.

The BSIV Ertiga and S-Cross are only Rs. 13,000 and Rs. 1.14 lakh cheaper than the Seltos diesel respectively. The base diesel prices of SUVs in other segments are also given in the table for your understanding.