The Kia Sonet had to compete with some strong players like – the Nissan Magnite, Toyota Urban Cruiser, and the Mahindra Thar – in the sub-4 metre SUV space to win the coveted 2021 CNB Subcompact of the Year award.

The all-new Kia Sonet is the winner of the 2021 CNB Subcompact of the Year award. The ‘Made-in-India, for the World’ SUV, as Kia calls it is the most affordable model in the company’s India line-up and one of its best-selling models in the country. To win the coveted title, the Kia Sonet subcompact SUV had to compete with some strong players like – the Nissan Magnite, Toyota Urban Cruiser, and the Mahindra Thar – in the sub-4 metre SUV space.

The Sonet is priced in India right now at ₹ 6.79 lakh to ₹ 13.19 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The Kia Sonet is offered in three powertrain choices – a 1.2-litre naturally-aspirated petrol unit, a 1.0-litre T-GDI turbocharged petrol engine, and a 1.5-litre diesel motor offered with WGT on the manual and VGT on the automatic. The 1.2-litre petrol unit is said to make 82 bhp at 6,300 rpm and a peak torque of 115 Nm at 4200 rpm, and it comes mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox as standard. The more powerful turbocharged 1.0-litre GDI engine will be tuned to make the same 118 bhp at 6000 rpm and 172 Nm at 1500-4000 rpm. Kia will offer two transmission choices with this engine – 6-speed iMT (Intelligent Manual Transmission) and 7-speed DCT automatic.

The diesel-powered Kia Sonet gets two version – 1.5-litre CRDI WGT (Waste-Gate Turbocharger) and 1.5-litre CRDI VGT (Variable-Geometry Turbocharger). The former is tuned to make 99 bhp at 4000 rpm and a peak torque of 240 Nm at 1500 to 2750 rpm, and it comes mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard. The 1.5-litre CRDI VGT engine makes 113 bhp at 4000 rpm and 250 Nm of peak torque at 1500-2750 rpm, and it comes paired with a 6-speed automatic torque converter.