Hyundai Aura launch confirmed for January 21, 2020

With a fully BS-VI compliant engine line-up, the Hyundai Aura is set to arrive on our shores quite a few days before the 2020 Auto Expo.

Hyundai has confirmed that it'll launch the all-new Aura compact sedan on 21st January 2020. While it is meant to replace the existing Xcent, Hyundai is likely to continue the latter's sale for commercial fleets (Xcent Prime) alongside the Aura. At 1,680mm, the Aura is  20mm wider than the outgoing Xcent and the former even offers 25mm longer wheelbase. That's good news for cabin spaciousness and comfort.

The Hyundai Aura made its global premiere in India recently and as expected, it is based on the Grand i10 NIOS, in the sense that both cars share their underpinnings and even the exterior styling, to some extent. While the Aura's interior still remains under wraps, conventional wisdom dictates that most of the bits are once again likely to be shared with the Grand i10 NIOS.

The obvious change on the Aura, compared to its hatchback sibling, is the addition of a sculpted boot. The rear profile of the Aura is further differentiated by the rather bold-looking Z-shaped wraparound LED taillamps. At the front, the Aura gets a slightly tweaked design. Compared to the Grand i10 NIOS, it gets revised fog lamp inserts and the cascading grille on the NIOS has been converted into a two-part design for the Aura, with the bottom half becoming a part of the bumper as the air dam. Also, the Aura gets twin boomerang-shaped LED DRLs on either side of the grille.

As for the powertrain options, the Aura will go on sale with three BS-VI compliant engines, two of which will be petrol-powered. The choice for petrol variants will be between a 1.0-litre Turbo GDi unit (99bhp & 172Nm) or the 1.2-litre MPI unit (82bhp & 114Nm). The latter will also be available as a CNG-powered version. The diesel variants, on the other hand, will be powered by a 1.2-litre ECOTORQ unit (74bhp & 190Nm). While the 1.0-litre turbo petrol will be paired exclusively to a 5-speed manual gearbox, the remaining two engines will get an additional option of a 5-speed AMT unit as well. 

You can read more about the Hyundai Aura's feature offerings here.