A turbo or super charged engine may not "need" vli to provide boost- but VW- the example of combining turbo and supercharging- also employs variable length intakes in concert with variable valve timing to cover the parameters of efficiency and power they seek on their turbo-supercharged powerplants.
Whether these engines- the 1.4 and 1.8 and even the 1.6 are the same as the 1.6 in the Aveo now- I don't know. I do know that the references made to these engines show that NVH, block design, bottom end stiffening, and in the case of the 1.8- the interest of the variable intake are relatively recent developments– and if these engines are simply variations of the same basic block/head configuration then part of the hot-rodding process is combining promising design elements even when they aren't on the same exact engine- in this case the 1.8 intake on the 1.4 turbo engine.
Honda tuners for years have matched different heads with different blocks to combine elements of low- end torque with upper end breathing. That's where I got the idea from. Also looking at the tech specs for where the bulk of power delivery is on the 1.4 T suggested that a variable length intake was a natural, along with re-configuring the cam timing for extending the significant power range. The research effort continues to see if the intake will fit the 1.4T...

Steve