Revised diesel for updated Hyundai iLoad
BY MIKE COSTELLO | 15th Aug 2012
The changes will bring fuel economy improvements across the board, at the expense of substantially-reduced power and torque figures for manual versions. Five-speed automatic variants, on the other hand, will receive a substantial hike in torque output.
GoAuto spotted the revised power, torque and efficiency figures on Hyundai Australia’s public website, with a company source informing us that the upgraded versions had gone on sale and would be officially announced later this week.
Chief among the changes is the addition of a new six-speed manual gearbox in place of the old five-speed unit, improving official fuel economy by 0.5 litres per 100km to 8.0L/100km.
This comes at a cost, however, with Hyundai ditching the variable geometry turbocharger from the engine in favour of a less-potent waste gate set-up, resulting in substantially lower power and torque outputs than before.
The new engine/manual gearbox combination will produce official figures of 100kW and 343Nm, down from 125kW/392Nm, although the new model hits its peak torque earlier, arriving from a low 1500rpm.
Perversely, five-speed automatic versions of the iLoad diesel will get a substantial hike in torque output, with the engine retaining the variable geometry turbocharger but now producing figures of 125kW and 441Nm (up from 125kW/392Nm).
The trade-off is a narrower peak torque band, with the maximum available between a narrow 2000 and 2250rpm (was 2000 and 2500rpm).
Despite the beefy boost, claimed combined fuel consumption has dropped at an even larger rate than the manual, now returning 8.8L/100km (was 9.5L/100km).
It is unclear at this stage if pricing or specifications will change, but GoAuto understands the cheaper 129kW/228Nm 2.4-litre petrol engine option will remain the same.
The rear-drive iLoad range is the biggest selling van model in Australia this year, with 3948 sales to the end of July placing it narrowly ahead of the Toyota HiAce (3717 sales).
