Hyundai i10 has been a huge success for Hyundai in India. In past one year, Hyundai is one of the few car companies which have observed record sales increase, thanks to Hyundai i10 which has made this happen. After this positive response , Hyundai has also launched i10 with Kappa-Engine of 1.2 L capacity. Earlier, the engine was iRDE 1.1 L.
What’s the difference between i10 Kappa and i10 iRDE ?
Technology:
Kappa is a technically advanced engine as compared to iRDE Engine of Hyundai i10. the iRDE engine was an enhanced version of Hyundai Santro Engine. But Kappa is a different design which is technically advanced than the iRDE engine of i10. In tech jargons, it has four valves per cylinders compared to three in iRDE, it has a Dual over-head cam-shaft (DOHC) compared to standard Single overhead cam-shaft (SOHC) in iRDE, it is made of super light weight die cast aluminum. In short it has got better ingredients 
Power:
Now we are talking for something real , the power. i10 Kappa has a power output of 80 BHP
compared to i10 iRDE which has a max power output of 66.6 BHP . What does it mean? Well it means a lot for the feel of the car, the pick-up and the punch. Its a considerable difference of 20% which means a good amount!
Mileage / Fuel Efficiency:
If you are worried about ever rising fuel prices, then don’t keep away from i10 Kappa just because it has got a bigger and more powerful engine, because you will be surprised to know that there is almost no difference in the fuel consumption average of i10 Kappa and iRDE. In fact, Hyundai claims that i10 Kappa delivers 4% higher fuel efficiency than i10 iRDE. But for practical aspect, you can say that i10 Kappa will not consume more fuel compared to i10 iRDE.
Price:
Rightly said that everything comes for a price, so does the better technology . i10 Kappa is priced a slightly higher than i10 iRDE, simply because it has better technology, more power and good fuel efficiency. But its pure value for that extra money.
Looks:
There is not big difference in exterior looks except for the rear spoiler logo at the back of the car which says 1.2 Kappa. For Interiors, they have been made sporty for certain Kappa variants by providing metal finish inside handles, leather wrapped Steering wheel, gear knob and hand brake, which you will not find in iRDE.
Verdict:
You must have guessed by the comparisons I have made above that Kappa is a clear winner
But if have bought i10 iRDE before Kappa was launched (I am also one of them 
) Don’t loose heart, because i10 iRDE is itself a great car from every aspect when compared to other cars in this segment. Please Share your views and experiences of i10 via comments below. Click here for more such updated directly in your inbox.
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3 Comments »
Ashish said :
September 7, 2008 at 9:56 am
my nephew frequently keeps on asking…why go for a higher capacity engine if you can tweak a smaller capacity one (like it has happened for Yamaha-R15) to deliver more power…n i’m often clueless. guide me…
admin said :
September 7, 2008 at 7:46 pm
@Ashish
Thanks buddy for the comment
Your Nephew is right, there is always a possibility to increase the power of the engine using same engine capacity by making the engine components lighter in weight, especially the moving parts, e.g pistons, valves, crank shafts, connecting rods, valves etc.
For example: a 800 CC engine of Maruti 800 gives 37 BHP max power
and Yamaha R5 racing engine of 600 CC gives 120 BHP max power!
Reason:
A lots of energy goes waste in overcoming inertial forces of heavy moving pats of engine. But there is always a balance between the strength and weight of these moving parts. If you can make the moving parts light without loosing strength of the moving part you can take out more energy from engine by burning same fuel in same kind of engine.
If you compromise too much on weight, it will loose strength and will break down
But there is a theoritical limit of this
because you can not get more energy than the energy burnt by fuel, so you gotta increase the engine capacity (CCs) after a limit.
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