Tata Nexon vs Hyundai Venue: Only One Runs on CNG

The Tata Nexon starts at ₹8.62 lakh on the road in Mumbai, about ₹69,000 less than the Hyundai Venue’s ₹9.31 lakh, and it is the only one of the two with a factory CNG tank. The Venue hits back with something no Nexon trim offers at any price: Level 2 ADAS and dual curved screens, but only on its ₹14.68 lakh flagship.

Both are compact SUVs chasing the same ₹8-15 lakh buyer. The Tata Nexon has been the segment’s best-seller for years; the new-generation Hyundai Venue has just reset the fight with a fresh Bharat NCAP score and a bigger screen count. Here is what actually separates them, using The Spec’d’s full spec comparison and our own city pricing.

On-Road Price: The ₹69,000 Gap in Mumbai

The Nexon undercuts the Venue by ₹59,910 ex-showroom at entry level. Add road tax, insurance and FASTag, from the Nexon’s Mumbai on-road price page and the Venue’s, and the gap widens to ₹69,000. Maharashtra’s 11% road tax comes to ₹81,399 on the Nexon against ₹87,989 on the Venue, since the Venue’s higher base price pushes the tax up too.

Those EMI figures, from the Nexon’s EMI calculator and the Venue’s, are on 20% down over 5 years at 9.5% interest: estimates, so confirm the real number with your dealer and lender. The gap holds across cities too. Our pricing shows the Nexon at ₹8.1 lakh in Puducherry, its cheapest, up to about ₹8.94 lakh in Andhra Pradesh. The Venue runs ₹8.74 lakh to ₹9.65 lakh over the same spread. The Nexon stays cheaper in all 39 cities we price, because its base is lower to start with.

Only the Nexon Runs on CNG

The Venue’s 18 variants split between naturally aspirated petrol, turbo petrol and diesel, with no CNG option anywhere in the range. The Nexon offers CNG across most of its line-up: on its mileage page, the Smart CNG MT works out to ₹3,330 per 1,000 km at a claimed 24 km/kg, against ₹4,290 for the Venue’s cheapest-to-run diesel manual on its own mileage page. For anyone doing serious city kilometres on a fuel budget, the Venue has no answer to that.

Which Variant Is Actually Worth Buying

Skip the Nexon’s bare Smart Petrol MT and the pricier Fearless+ trims most buyers never need. The Pure+ CNG MT at ₹9.99 lakh is the sweet spot: a step up from base, with CNG running costs, for ₹2.6 lakh over the cheapest variant rather than the ₹7.12 lakh jump to the top diesel automatic. On the Venue, buy the HX5 Turbo Petrol MT at ₹9.93 lakh: it gets the peppier 120PS turbo without the ₹1.02 lakh premium Hyundai charges for the DCT automatic at the same trim.

Claimed vs Real Mileage

Spinny’s owner-mileage estimates put the Nexon’s petrol at roughly 11-13 kmpl in daily traffic against its claimed 17.44 kmpl, and the Venue’s petrol at about 12-14 kmpl against its claimed 18.05 kmpl, both around a third short of the lab number, typical for a petrol SUV in stop-start city use. On diesel the gap closes: Spinny puts the Venue’s oil-burner near 18.5 kmpl in real use, close to its claimed 20.99 kmpl. Neither figure is from an instrumented test, so treat them as estimates, not guarantees.

Space, Ground Clearance and the Back Seat

The Nexon’s 208mm ground clearance is genuinely class-leading and shrugs off speed breakers that catch a lower SUV. The Venue sits 13mm lower at 195mm. The Nexon’s 382-litre boot beats the Venue’s 350 litres too, though CNG buyers lose some of that edge, down to 321 litres with the dual cylinders. The Venue’s wider 1,770mm body does not translate to more rear room: a third adult across the back bench on a long drive is a squeeze, a packaging trade-off Hyundai has not solved on a sub-4-metre platform. The Nexon’s diesel, meanwhile, comes only as a manual or an AMT that still shifts with a pause you feel in traffic; Tata has not offered it with a smoother torque-converter option. The Venue actually wins this round, as the first Venue generation with a genuine torque-converter diesel automatic, on the HX5, HX8 and HX10 trims.

The One Thing the Nexon Cannot Match

Every Nexon variant tops out at Level 1 ADAS. Hyundai reserves Level 2 ADAS and dual 12.3-inch curved displays, a sub-4-metre SUV first, for exactly one Venue trim: the HX10 Turbo Petrol DCT at ₹14.68 lakh ex-showroom, nearly double the Nexon’s starting price. If adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist matter more than CNG or ground clearance, the Venue is the only one of these two that can sell it to you, but you pay the full flagship price to get it.

Safety: Two 5-Star Cars, Different Test Years

Both cars carry a 5-star Bharat NCAP rating with 6 airbags standard on every variant. The Nexon was tested in 2024, scoring 29.41/32 for adults and 43.83/49 for children, and was the first Indian-made car to earn a 5-star Global NCAP rating. The Venue was tested under Bharat NCAP’s updated 2026 protocol, scoring 31.15/32 for adults and 44.46/49 for children. The Venue’s raw numbers are higher, but the two were tested two years apart under different protocol versions, so treat these as two separately-earned 5-star ratings rather than a direct points contest.

Buy the Nexon for the lower on-road price, the bigger boot, the extra ground clearance and a CNG option the Venue does not offer. Buy the Venue only if you are prepared to pay for its ₹14.68 lakh flagship, the one trim where Level 2 ADAS and a torque-converter diesel automatic put real distance between it and anything the Nexon sells.

For the full field, see every compact SUV on sale in India on The Spec’d, priced across all 39 cities we track.

Is the Tata Nexon cheaper than the Hyundai Venue?

Yes. The Nexon’s ex-showroom price starts ₹59,910 below the Venue’s, widening to about ₹69,000 once road tax and insurance are added in Mumbai, and it stays cheaper than the Venue in all 39 cities The Spec’d prices.

Does the Hyundai Venue have a CNG option?

No. The Venue’s 18 variants are petrol or diesel only. The Tata Nexon is the one with a factory CNG option, running at a claimed 24 km/kg and about ₹3,330 per 1,000 km.

Which has better safety, the Nexon or the Venue?

Both carry a 5-star Bharat NCAP rating with 6 airbags standard. The Venue, tested more recently under Bharat NCAP’s 2026 protocol, scored a higher 31.15/32 for adults against the Nexon’s 29.41/32 from its 2024 test, but the scores come from different test years and are not a true like-for-like contest.