Compelling more big names to come up with their new hatchbacks, Indian Territory is known widely for its love for the budget and the fuel efficient hatchbacks. Being in comparatively early stage, auto giants are eyeing Indian hatchback segment, seeing it as a very ripe market to enter. Along with the fuel efficiency, Indian consumers are extensively demanding about good features and the comfortability quotient in their cars. This lead a lot of companies to work hard to meet Indian car requirements in order to compete with others efficiently and have themselves a good market share. The current big names dominating the Indian premium hatchback segments are Honda Jazz, Hyundai Elite i20, Volkswagen Polo and Maruti Suzuki Swift. Each one of them with their renewed features, affordable price are competing hard to impress generally unpredictable Indian consumers. We thought that it would be really interesting to observe these hatchbacks and pit them against each to conclude which one meets the Indian demands the best. Below are the observations we made.
Engine– Hyundai i20’s petrol 1.2 litre engine churns out a maximum of 81 bhp of power along with 5 manual gears transmission with 114 Nm of torque while the 1.4 diesel motor provides 88 bhp power with 219 Nm torque and comes with 6-speed manual.
Polo, diesel engine-1.5 litre is good for 90bhp and 230 Nm of peak torque. On the other hand the 1.2 litre petrol one churns out a maximum power of 75 bhp power with 110 Nm torque. Petrol variant comes with a 5 speed gear transmission while the diesel engine works with 7-speed automatic transmission.
Jazz’s 1.2 litre petrol engine gives 89 bhp and 115 Nm while 1.5 litre diesels works well for 99 bhp and about 200 Nm of peak torque. They provide 5 speed and a six speed manual transmission, respectively.
Coming to Maruti Suzuki swift, the 1.2 litre engine (petrol) gives out 83 bhp and 114 Nm with the 1.3 litre diesel one churning out a maximum power of 74 bhp with 190 torque. Petrol variant has a 5 speed manual transmission with the diesel one having 6.
Design – when it comes to the design what gives i20 an edge over others is the Hyundai’s very famous fluidic structure 2.0 philosophy that gives away a very unique and stylish look from the outside. While, others are decent as well but Hyundai is much ahead of them in this regard.
If the exterior of Hyundai is better it fails while comparing the interiors with Polo. Polo uses high quality materials giving it a stylish yet elegant edge over the others.
Features– All the models in competition are mostly similar when it comes to the features. They all come with cruise control, wheel laced with additional controls, ABS, ALS, an efficient multimedia system with display among others. Giving it a slight edge over the others, Jazz comes with a touchscreen LCD.
Price- Petrol of i20 ranges in between INR 5.50 lakh- 6.94 lakh with diesel variant, 6.42 lakh-8.05 lakh.
Polo is priced between 5.33 lakh- 6.41 lakh and 6.68 lakh-7.82 lakh for petrol and diesel variants, respectively.
Jazz, 5.31 lakh-7.85 for petrol and 6.49 lakh-8.59 for diesel.
Swift starts from 4.72 lakh to 6.17 lakh for the petrol and for the diesel it will cost you somewhere between 5.80 lakh-7.28 lakh depending on the model.
