"The world is thinking small like never before: Smaller fuel consumption, smaller CO2 footprint, smaller overall emissions. Today small is beautiful and Hyundai is ready to answer the call to small with our new Kappa inline four cylinder engine," said President and Chief Technology Officer Lee Hyun-Soon.

The first car to have the Kappa engine installed will be the i10, which is 100 percent produced at Hyundai Motor Co.'s Indian subsidiary in Chennai. Hyundai Motor India (HMI) launched the i10 in October 2007 and has sold 184,465 units as of the end of June, one of HMI's best sellers.

Hyundai's i10 minicar with a 1.25 liter Kappa engine will deliver a fuel economy rating of 5.0L/100km (47 mpg) in the European combined test cycle--for best in class performance. And Kappa runs cleaner than the competition: In the European combined test cycle, an i10 equipped with the Kappa engine produces just 119g/km of CO2-far less than the Fiat Panda, Fiat Punto, Opel Corsa, Renault Twingo and Nissan Micra.

Kappa also impresses with its high specific torque rating of 9.6kg.m per liter--best in class--for excellent drivability in stop-and-go city traffic. Kappa will also be installed in Hyundai's i20 due to be revealed at this autumn's Paris Auto Show.

Developed over a period of 48 months, the Kappa project harnessed all of Hyundai's engineering know-how in the quest to squeeze more energy out of each droplet of fuel while achieving EURO-4 emissions compliancy.

Kappa puts out 77.8ps@6000rpm--very competitive within the European A-segment--but peak torque is rated best-in-class at 12.0kg.m per 4000rpm--ensuring outstanding acceleration and driving enjoyment.

Kappa is the eleventh in its series of gasoline engines to be independently developed with Hyundai technology. The development story began in 1991 with the introduction of Hyundai's first proprietary engine, the four-cylinder Alpha (see list below). Kappa will be manufactured in two variants 1.25 litres (EU) and 1.2 litres (Indian market only) at HMI's No. 2 engine plant, where annual output is forecast to reach 250,000 units per year. With the newly-constructed No. 2 Kappa engine plant, HMI will have a total engine manufacturing capacity of 570,000 units per year, including the existing 320,000 units-per-year No. 1 Epsilon and Alpha engine plant. The Kappa engine plant has started production.