2018 Kia Forte engine options
When you are looking at compacts, you want something efficient, and the Kia Forte unsurprisingly provides in that category. We will get to that in a moment though, because how it puts up its impressive fuel economy numbers is perhaps more interesting. See what we mean as we explore the 2018 Kia Forte engine options.
Available Forte engine options
There are actually two engine options available for the Kia Forte, and as they are both 2.0-liter 4-cylinder powerplants, it can get a little confusing. To make things simple, you have to remember that one of the engines is a traditional 4-cycle combustion engine and the other is an Atkinson cycle engine.
Atkinson cycle engines utilize longer strokes on the combustion and exhaust cycles and shorter strokes on the intake and compression cycles. To put it simply, and Atkinson cycle engine is a little more complicated, produces less power, but provides more efficiency. Let’s see these engines by the numbers.
Read More: 2018 Sportage engine options
2.0-liter Atkinson Cycle Engine
Available Trim levels: LX and S
Max Horsepower: 147
Max Torque: 132 pound-feet
2.0-liter Engine
Available Trim levels: EX
Max Horsepower: 164
Max Torque: 151 pound-feet
The trim levels for the 2018 Forte start with the LX and go up from there with the S and the top EX trim. As you would expect, you get the most powerful version of the 2.0-liter engine with the top EX trim level.
Color options for the 2018 Kia Forte
Fuel efficiency of the 2018 Forte
Let’s start this conversation off with the manual transmission option. The base model LX has a 6-speed manual transmission available, and with the Atkinson Cycle engine, it provides 25-city mpg and 34-highway mpg. However, manual transmissions don’t often get the best efficiency these days.
The LX is also available with a 6-speed automatic, which comes standard on the S and EX trims. With this transmission and the Atkinson cycle 2.0-liter, the LX and S trims both get an impressive 29-city mpg and 37-highway mpg. The EX trim with its more traditional 2.0-liter engine gets 25-city mpg and 33-highway mpg.
Read More: What’s coming to the 2019 Forte?
