The Hyundai Eon is now available in two petrol engine options - 0.8L iRDE engine and 1.0L Kappa engine.

Eon 0.8L iRDE

The Hyundai Eon 0.8L iRDE is powered by a 814 cc, 3-cylinder petrol engine that puts out 55 bhp of maximum power at 5500 rpm and 76 Nm of maximum torque at 4000 rpm. It is the same unit that powers the i10 in a downsized form with a cylinder chopped off, mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. The engine is nicely refined but still you can feel the engine upon starting it through the gear lever.

The engine is designed to offer maximum fuel economy, so don’t expect outright performance. The 3-cylinder unit is best suited for city driving. The throttle response and low end power delivery is not bad. The engine responds nicely to short bursts of acceleration and can cruise in the highways around 120 km/h without any hassle. But be it the traffic laden city roads or the highways, the gearbox demands a healthy workout from you to extract the performance you expect.

The clutch is one of the lightest that you can experience and mix that to the light steering and the city driving will be effortless. The steering is a tad too light to our liking and this proves to be a problem on the highways when you are cruising in triple digit speeds. The lack of feedback from the steering can be frightening at high speeds around the curves.

Eon 1.0L Kappa

Hyundai also added the 1.0-litre Kappa engine to the Eon range to compete better with the Alto, which is available with a 0.8-litre and a 1.0-litre engine option. The Eon 1.0-litre Kappa is powered by a 998 cc, 3-cylinder petrol engine that makes 68 bhp at 6200 rpm and a peak torque of 94 Nm at 3500 rpm.

Mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox, the Eon 1.0L is for those who think that the 0.8L Eon is a bit slow. Though not by a large margin, the 1.0-L does offer a bit more zippy engine and Hyundai has also taken care of the jerkiness that you experience with the smaller engine. There are no other changes mechanically and the Eon 1.0L behaves the same like the 0.8L but with a bit more briskness. The Eon 1.0L is only available in Magna+ (O) variant.

Performance Comparison (Petrol)

Hyundai EON Maruti Alto 800 Tata Nano Power 55.2bhp@5500rpm 47.3bhp@6000rpm 37.48bhp@5500rpm Torque (Nm) 74.5Nm@4000rpm 69Nm@3500rpm 51Nm@4000rpm Engine Displacement (cc) 814 cc 796 cc 624 cc Transmission Manual Manual Automatic Top Speed (kmph) 135 Kmph 140 kmph 105 Kmph 0-100 Acceleration (sec) 19 Seconds 12.6 Seconds Kerb Weight (kg) - 762kg 765kg Fuel Efficiency (ARAI) 21.1kmpl 22.05kmpl 21.9kmpl Power Weight Ratio - 62.07bhp/ton 48.99bhp/ton

Ride and Handling

As far as the ride quality and handling characteristics are concerned, both the 0.8L and 1.0L behave similarly as there are no differences in the suspension setup. The Hyundai Eon gets the typical McPherson strut to the front and torsion beam axle to the rear for the suspension duties. While the Eon goes smooth as long as the roads are smooth and can absorb slight aberrations of without a problem. But as the going gets tough, the Eon does get going but you will feel each and every bit of those large bumps.

When it comes to handling, predictable is the word that describes that of the Eon. Hyundai Eon doe a neat job of going around the city traffic without any drama. Over the highways, while the straight line stability is good, going around the curves will rob you off the confidence. The skinny tyres are the major reason and hence we recommend wider tyre upgrade at the earliest. The tyres take no time to understeer if pushed hard and the body roll also crops in.

While the light steering is good for the city commutes, the feedback from it is almost nonexistent on the highways. The brakes though have a nice bite to them and inspire confidence during high speed braking situations.