Hyundai Verna facelift launched at Rs 9.31 lakh | Takes on Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and upcoming 2020 Honda City
Hyundai has revamped its Indian portfolio in a span of 8 months. It kickstarted with the Kona Electric in July 2019 followed by the facelifted Elantra, Grand i10 NIOS and notable 2020 launches including the Aura, all-new Creta and now the Verna facelift. The latter has been launched at Rs 9.31 lakh, ex-showroom for the base petrol manual variant. The diesel range starts at Rs 10.65 lakh while the turbo-petrol Verna costs Rs 13.99 lakh.
Design of the Verna facelift
There are subtle upgrades to the design of the 2020 Hyundai Verna. There are new LED headlamps with DRLs and the headlamp cluster itself is sleeker than before. There’s a larger chrome heavy cascading grille and the wraparound tail lamps too are new. Adding a sporty touch are the front and rear skid plates while the rear bumper gets a slender chrome strip. The Verna Turbo on the other hand gets a blacked-out grille and a sporty bumper design along with honeycomb patterned faux aero vents on sides of the rear bumper. It also has twin-tip exhaust mufflers like on the new Creta.
Powering the 2020 Verna
In terms of powertrain, you can choose between five engine-gearbox options across 11 variants. The range starts with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine that makes 115hp at 6300rpm and 144Nm of torque at 4500rpm. This engine can be mated to a six-speed manual transmission or a CVT. Then there’s also the 1.5-litre diesel engine that makes 115hp at 4000rpm and 250Nm of torque between 1500-2750rpm. It can be had with a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed torque converter automatic transmission.
For enthusiasts, there’s also a 1-litre turbo-petrol engine on offer that makes 120hp at 6000rpm and 172Nm of torque between 1500-4000rpm. It’s mated to a seven-speed dual clutch transmission. This engine has a wider peak torque bandwidth compared to the standard petrol and diesel engines. It’s also the same unit that does duty in the Venue, Aura turbo and the Grand i10 NIOS turbo. Lastly, all the engines are BS6 compliant.
Features of the new Verna
The cabin appears similar to the outgoing generation of the Verna albeit with subtle touches making it more premium. There’s an 8-inch central touchscreen infotainment system supporting Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, MirrorLink and Hyundai’s Bluelink connectivity system that let’s you remotely control a host of features via the iBlue smartphone application. It’s the same unit from the Venue and the Creta. In addition, there are two segment first features, front ventilated seats and hands free smart trunk. That said, there's also the usual gamut of premium features like electric sunroof, wireless smartphone charger and an Arkamys sound system.
The Verna rivals the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and the upcoming Honda City. The Ciaz starts at Rs 8.31 lakh, undercutting the base petrol manual Verna by over Rs 1 lakh while the current generation Honda City starts at Rs 9.91 lakh, ex-showroom. The new City was slated for launch early in March 2020, but due to the coronavirus lockdown, the launch is pushed to sometime in April.
Here's the variant wise pricing of the new Verna:
