These Pictures Show The Clearest Look At The Differences Between The Kia Sonet And Hyundai Venue

These two sub-4m SUVs may be related but there’s very little common between them, as we found out

Update (18/09/2020): Kia has launched the Sonet with prices beginning from Rs 6.71 lakh (ex-showroom). Read more about it here.

Kia has finally taken the wraps off the production-spec Sonet, the brand’s entry in the sub-4m SUV segment. Since it was first announced, we’ve known that the Sonet will share the same underpinnings as the Hyundai Venue and feature the same engines as well. We expected the two siblings to share even more aspects closer to production but now that the Kia offering has been revealed in its entirety, it’d be hard to draw parallels between the Sonet and the Venue from the outside or even the inside.

Let’s take a closer look at the Sonet and Venue, side by side: 

Exterior

While the Venue distinguished itself with a quirky new design language, the Seltos has gone for over-the-top styling cues. In fact, it looks a lot like the pre-production concept showcased at Auto Expo 2020. The Sonet’s LED headlamps are in their conventional position unlike Hyundai’s bumper-mounted design. Kia has a sportier bumper design with the taller air dam and vents that are connected to the front skid plate. Its ‘tiger nose’ grille featuring red accents in the GT Line variant looks sportier too than the Venue’s gaping cascading grille design.

Around the back, Kia has gone for a cleaner design than the busy front end of the Sonet. It does get connected LED taillamps with an elegant reflector strip, a sporty and premium touch. In comparison, the Venue’s square-shaped tail lamps look quite mild but not less premium by any means. Also, the Sonet has an ever so slightly chunkier rear bumper with faux dual exit exhausts in this GT Line trim while the Venue has a simpler look that sticks to its premium appeal instead of trying to look sporty.

Once you look at them both from the side profile, you’ll see some similarities in their proportions as sub-4m SUVs with the same underpinnings. Both have an upright stance and tall bonnets with relatively flat rear ends. However, the Venue has sharper lines as opposed to the Sonet’s muscular curves. Also, the Sonet’s C-pillar leans back to accentuate its sporty design, in contrast to the Venue’s windowline where the C-pillar follows a more conventional shape that conveys sturdiness.

Kia has taken things up a notch with the Sonet that features LED headlamps with fang-shaped LED daytime running lights. The Venue’s split headlamp design with the indicators on top and headlamps on the bumper still stands out for quirkiness. Unfortunately, the Hyundai SUV only gets projector headlamps and not LEDs. Surprisingly, both cars have to make do with halogen front fog lamps while some rivals offer LED units for those too.

Around the back, both the Sonet and Venue feature LED taillamps but in very different designs. The Kia has a sportier look with split units and a connecting element while the Venue’s lamps mimic the square-ish design of the headlamp units.

Kia has opted for more realistically sized 16-inch crystal cut alloys for the production-spec Sonet. Like the rest of the styling elements, these are designed to look racey as opposed to the more spaced out design of the 16-inch diamond-cut alloys of the Venue. Nevertheless, both designs look quite sharp.

Also read: Here’s The Kia Sonet’s Exterior Decoded In Images

Interior

Inside the cabin as well, the Kia Sonet interior looks nothing like that of the Hyundai Venue. From the design of the dashboard to the central console, these are two very different cars. Once again, the Kia takes it up a notch with the central display integrated into the instrument cluster panel as seen in the Seltos. Also, the Sonet’s cabin seems more driver-centric with the consoles angled slightly towards the driver and a bit closer to the line of sight. Possibly the only shared element here is the inside rearview mirror with hot keys since both cars come equipped with connected technology.

The Sonet features a segment-leading 10.25-inch touchscreen display, same as the one offered in the Seltos. Since it is integrated into the instrument panel, it stands atop the dashboard and above the central AC vents. Meanwhile, the Hyundai Venue comes with an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system that is housed between the central AC vents. Both systems offer their brand’s respective connected car technology features: Bluelink for Hyundai and UVO Connect for Kia. They both offer navigation as well as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility. 

Kia has equipped the Sonet with a semi-digital instrument cluster that features a 4.2-inch full LCD display, a digital speed readout and analog dials for the tachometer, fuel level and engine temperature. This is a step above the Hyundai Venue’s instrument cluster that features two analog dials flanking its LCD multi-information display. The Sonet’s digital display is capable of showing information in more detail.

The Sonet’s vertically-oriented AC vents with knurled patterns look a lot more premium than the Venue’s vents. Also, the climate controls for the Kia sit higher on the console than in the Hyundai thanks to the positioning of the infotainment system. The Venue’s climate controls use a three-dial layout with various buttons and an LED display on the central dial. Meanwhile, Kia’s climate control panel looks a bit cluttered with more buttons and toggles.

But if you’ll look closely at the shot of the Kia Sonet’s climate controls, you’ll notice an extra row of buttons underneath it. The two buttons at each end are for the ventilated front seats, which is not something that Hyundai offers on the Venue. The drive modes and traction modes are also added features for the Kia that the Venue misses out on.

Thanks to the distinct central console design, Kia has managed to fit the Sonet with a two-tier storage. The upper tier also has the wireless charging pad with some vents to cool your phone as it charges and the lower tier features the usual charging ports as well. Meanwhile, the Venue only has one tier of phone stowage under the climate controls that has both the wireless charging pad and the other sockets and ports.

Once again, the top-trim Kia Sonet is a step above the Hyundai Venue. It comes equipped with an in-built air purifier and perfume diffuser with an air quality readout integrated into the central tunnel above the rear AC vents (just like the Seltos). Meanwhile, Hyundai offers the Venue with a sort of portable air purifier that takes up one of the cupholders and is much more basic in comparison. 

Both cars come with smart keys and engine start-stop buttons but only the Sonet comes equipped with front parking sensors.

The Kia Sonet will be offered in two trim lines: GT Line and Tech LIne. The GT Line gets all-black interiors with red accents while the Tech Line variants get dual-tone cream and black interior theme. Meanwhile, the Hyundai Venue comes with a single all-black theme for the interior but it's not as sporty as the Sonet’s GT Line interior. Both cars get a central armrest as well.

The GT Line Sonet that was showcased for its global premier gets the same sporty upholstery with the red highlights on the seats. Both the Venue and Sonet are offered with a rear fold-out armrest with cupholders and miss out on a central headrest for the middle-rear occupant.

Kia and Hyundai offer rear AC vents for their sub-4m SUV offerings. The Sonet features the same knurled-pattern surround with the vertically aligned vents as seen at the front. Like the Venue, it also gets a rear charging port but also a little storage cutout as well.

Both the Sonet and Venue are equipped with a sunroof.

The Sonet gets a premium 7-speaker BOSE sound system with subwoofer and mood lighting as offered in the Seltos. Meanwhile, the Venue gets a 6-speaker Arkamys sound system.

Engines & Transmissions

This is where the Kia Sonet and Hyundai Venue are actually the same. They’ll both get the same three engine options: 1.2-litre petrol, 1.5-litre diesel and 1.0-litre turbo-petrol.

The transmission options on offer include a 5-speed manual for the naturally-aspirated petrol engine and 6-speed manual shifters for the turbo-petrol and diesel engines. Like the Venue, the Sonet will also get the new 6-speed iMT clutchless manual option for the turbo-petrol engine.

The turbo-petrol engine will get a third transmission option of a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic in both models. As a segment-first, the Kia Sonet will also get the option of a 6-speed torque converter automatic with the diesel automatic. Kia’s automatic gear select looks different from that of the Venue.

Prices

The Kia Sonet is expected to be launched in India around late August or early September. It will likely be priced between Rs 8 lakh and 13 lakh while the Venue’s cost ranges from Rs 6.70 lakh to Rs 11.58 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).