The 2024 Hyundai Alcazar facelift gets the same engine options as the outgoing model — a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol producing 160PS of power and 253Nm of torque, and a 1.5-litre turbo-diesel engine producing 116PS of power and 250Nm of torque.
As you can make out from the previous slide, the updated Alcazar does not get a bigger diesel engine, while its rivals offers bigger 2.0-litre and 2.2-litre units.
The Tata Safari gets a 2.0-litre diesel engine that produces 170PS of power and 350Nm of peak torque. The MG Hector Plus also gets a 2.0-litre unit boasting identical power and torque figures.
The Mahindra XUV700 gets an even bigger 2.2-litre diesel unit that produces 155PS of power and 360Nm of torque in the lower state of tune, and 185PS of power along with 420Nm(MT)/450Nm(AT) of torque in the higher state of tune. These SUVs offer a significant bump in power and torque as compared to the Alcazar.
As clarified by a Hyundai Motor India Limited spokesperson, the K2 platform that underpins the Alcazar (also cars like the Creta and Seltos) is not compatible with Hyundai’s bigger 2.0-litre diesel engine. Some cars built on the K2 platform do get a bigger diesel engine in some countries, but that too is a 1.6-litre unit; not bigger than that.
Yes, it did. But that was a naturally-aspirated petrol unit with a compact size. On the other hand, turbocharged engines such as Hyundai’s R 2.0-litre diesel engine require additional components that increase the engine size.
While the Hyundai Alcazar diesel variants do not perform the best in terms of performance, the 1.5-litre unit is quite efficient, delivering a real-life mileage of around 15-16 kmpl in the city and 17-18 kmpl on highways. And no matter how fond of power we are, fuel efficiency does matter at the end of the day.
While we won’t see a bigger diesel engine on the Hyundai Alcazar anytime soon, a generational update with a new platform may pave the way for a bigger and more powerful unit. On a side note, more than half of Alcazar’s customers opt for the diesel engine over the petrol one, and OEMs shall continue making diesel engines till there is demand (and the regulations allow for the same).