- Kia Carens updated with a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine
- The older 1.4-litre turbo-petrol discontinued
Kia has updated the Carens with a new 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and an idle engine start-stop system. The new powertrain now gets a boost in performance, but is it fuel efficient as well? Our real-world city and highway mileage tests reveal this. For reference, the officially claimed figures for the 1.5-litre engine paired with a seven-speed DCT gearbox stand at 17.9kmpl.
In our city run for the fuel economy test, the Kia Carens covered 75.3km and utilised 6.9 litres of petrol. This shows a calculated mileage of 10.8kmpl while the instrument cluster indicated 10.5kmpl. This is not an impressive figure but fair enough for a six-seater car that weighs 1,460kg. It should be noted that the Carens comes with auto engine start-stop tech which aids in saving fuel. And, if one wants to extract the maximum mileage, one can switch to the Eco drive mode.
Out on the highway, the Carens expectedly returned a higher mileage. It consumed 5.2 litres of fuel on the highway sprint of 89.1km. This equates to a highway fuel efficiency of 17.1kmpl, which is close to the MID-indicated fuel economy of 17kmpl. Thus, the 45-litre fuel-tank capacity gives an adequate driving range for a long-distance trip.
This 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine produces 158bhp and 253Nm of torque. Apart from the seven-speed DCT, this mill can also be had in a six-speed iMT which returns 17.7kmpl (claimed). Power figures remain the same. Otherwise, the lower variants of the Carens are offered with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine that makes 114bhp and 144Nm of torque. This engine is only available with a six-speed manual transmission. On the other hand, there's an even more frugal 1.5-litre diesel engine. It is offered with either a six-speed iMT or a six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission.