2017 Kia Picanto revealed
Kia has taken the Christmas wrapping of its all-new Picanto city car ahead of a spring launch
Kia continues to refresh its model lineup with the announcement that an all-new third-generation Picanto city car will arrive in the Spring of 2017.
The Picanto is a key car for Kia as it is one of the firm’s best sellers globally and is second on Kia’s UK sales charts, accounting for 14.7% of Kia cars sold in 2016.
It’s also the latest in a swathe of models being renewed or introduced to the South Korean firm’s line-up. In 2016 Kia launched the new Optima saloon which was followed by a hybrid and a very good estate version (Sportswagon), an all-new Sportage SUV (accounted for 44.9% of 2016 UK sales), a facelifted Soul and the all-new and excellent Niro hybrid.
2017 kicks off in similar fashion with the launch of the all-new Rio supermini in February, the unveiling of an all-new Stinger sports saloon at January’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit Motor Show, and now the all-new Picanto.
It’s been developed at Kia’s design centres in Namyang, Korea and Frankfurt, Germany and will face stiff competition from the Hyundai i10 and Ford KA+.
Seen here in what’s likely to be range-topping GT-Line, the front end gets sharper and more aggressive headlight and a ‘tiger-nose’ grille, to fall in line with the look of the current Kia range.
The Kia badge has been moved out of the grille and onto the bonnet and larger side air intakes. The lower grille retains a similar shape to the current car as does the position of the fog lights.
Round the back, it’s more of what you had before, although the taillights have been extended and changed from the shape of inward facing boomerangs to horseshoes.
Inside see the biggest changes over the second-generation Picanto. There’s a completely new look to the dashboard which now features the ‘must have’ free-standing infotainment screen. Overall, the design looks much classier than before.
Its wheelbase has grown by 15mm (to 2,400mm), helping to increase interior room which Kia claims gives the Picanto more passenger and luggage space than any other city car rival, although the Picanto hasn’t actually grown in length at 3,595mm long.
The all-new Picanto will be unveiled at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show in March and will go on sale in the spring.
Alongside Kia’s other new cars for 2017, the Picanto should aid further UK growth after a 13.8% increase in sales for 2016 (89,363) compared to 2015 (78,489).
