2023 Kia Seltos Spotted Testing In India

Recently, a heavily camouflaged Kia Seltos has been spied testing wearing heavy camouflage. From the shared images, the silhouette of the spied Kia Seltos SUV remains largely similar to the outgoing iteration of the SUV.

This means that the new update of the Kia Seltos is more likely to be devoid of any major design changes and feature simpler design changes such as reprofiled front and rear bumper, refreshed headlamps and taillamps, and redesigned interior dashboard.

In addition to this, the updated Kia Seltos may also get an updated feature list with a larger panoramic sunroof and different interior upholstery.

The updated Kia Seltos SUV is also rumoured to come with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) as this feature is becoming more of a norm in the country. With the ADAS, the updated Kia Seltos will sport features such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), lane assistance, blind-spot monitoring, drowsiness alert, auto emergency braking, rear cross-traffic alert and a few more.

Also, while there are reports about Kia replacing the 1.5-litre diesel engine with a more modern petrol-hybrid powertrain, this is highly unlikely as the diesel powertrain is a favourite among Indian SUV buyers.

However, there is a possibility that Kia may introduce a CNG option with the 1.4-litre turbocharged engine. This is more likely as this engine with the CNG mod has already been spotted testing in the Kia Carens MUV.

At present, the Kia Seltos SUV comes with a choice of three engine options. The base engine consists of a 1.5-litre naturally-spirated petrol engine with 113bhp of peak power and 144Nm of peak torque, whereas the more powerful 1.4-litre turbocharged unit puts out 138bhp of peak power and 242Nm of peak torque.

The last engine option is a 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel powertrain with 113bhp of peak power and 250Nm of peak torque.

Coming to the transmission options, the Kia Seltos comes with five gearbox options. However, not all gearbox options are available with all three engine options. The base 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated unit can be mated to either a 6-speed intelligent manual transmission(iMT) or a 6-speed manual transmission or even a CVT.

The more popular diesel powertrain also comes with three gearbox options. However, instead of the CVT, the diesel unit comes with a 6-speed torque converter gearbox. On the other hand, the turbocharged petrol unit can be had with just two gearbox options - a 7-speed DCT gearbox or a 6-speed manual transmission.

Though launched way back in 2019, the Kia Seltos is still among the best-equipped SUVs in its segment with features such as 6 airbags, ABS, ESC, VSM, HAC, BOSE premium 8 speaker system, heads-up display, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, wireless charging, large touchscreen infotainment unit, connected car tech, 360-degree camera, Blind view Monitor, front parking sensors and many more.

At present, prices for the Kia Seltos SUV start from Rs 10.19 lakh (ex-showroom, India) for the base HTE variant of the SUV equipped with the 1.5-litre petrol engine and 6-speed manual transmission.

Thoughts About 2023 Kia Seltos

The updated iteration of the Kia Seltos will make the SUV a lot fresher and is likely to improve the sales of the South Korean automaker in India. Moreover, the sales figures of the Kia Seltos will be crucial for the automaker's overall sales performance in India.

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