Kia Seltos Diesel iMT real-world fuel efficiency revealed

Introduction

The Kia Seltos is currently the only diesel SUV offering customers the convenience of an iMT. This iMT or intelligent manual transmission provides the best of both worlds — the control from a manual gearbox and the clutchless convenience of an automatic transmission. Plus, there is the frugal 113bhp 1.5-litre diesel engine known for being fuel efficient. Doesn't this seem like a great combination?

Yes, indeed. We drove this car to ascertain this and all the details are mentioned in our first drive review. In fact, we even tested it for its performance and real-world fuel economy. Here we will tell you how it fared in our full tank-to-tank road test, however, its official ARAI-rated fuel-efficiency figures are unavailable at the moment.

City Fuel Economy

We drove the Seltos over our designated testing route, which we use for all our cars. This SUV weighs 1,310kg, which is heavy, and we didn't expect it to offer much. However, the Seltos iMT managed to deliver 17.59kmpl within the city. This is good for a vehicle of this size and weight.

Highway Fuel economy

After such an impressive feat within the city, it was no surprise when the Seltos iMT performed even better on the highway. Here it achieved an enhanced fuel efficiency of 20.71kmpl.

Accordingly, let us consider the 50litres fuel tank of the diesel Seltos. Now, with an average of 19.15kmpl, it will provide a practical driving range of about 957km, which is quite impressive for a mid-size SUV.

Please note that while the tested figures aren’t way off the claimed figures, our tests are performed in real-world conditions for all cars as against the claimed figures in ideal conditions. These tested figures give you a realistic figure in the ballpark of what you could expect from your car.