The all-new Kia Rio, which made its world debut at the 2016 Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris, will go on sale during this quarter.

The B-segment car is the Korean manufacturer’s second best-selling model globally, with just under 450,000 units sold around the world in 2016, accounting for 15 per cent of Kia’s annual sales.
 
Now in its fourth generation, the new Rio stands out thanks to progressive design, class-leasing practicality, more engaging ride and handling and greater safety credentials.
 
Spencer Cho, director of overseas product marketing, Kia Motors Corporation, commented: “As one of our best-selling models worldwide, the Rio is an important car for Kia. The B-segment is a hotly-contested area of the new car market, and the third-generation Rio has introduced more people to the Kia brand than ever before.
 
“The Rio’s attractive design, low running costs and practical nature have made the car a ‘gateway’ to the brand, an entry point into Kia ownership for hundreds of thousands of buyers around the world. It’s for these reasons that the outgoing model has sold in record numbers. The all-new Rio builds on these strengths and has been designed and engineered to meet the needs and desires of a wider range of buyers – it is now even more desirable thanks to a more enjoyable drive, a striking new design and improved safety.”
 
Exterior design
The Rio’s progressive new exterior and interior design was led by Kia’s design centres in Germany and California, in close collaboration with the company’s domestic design base in Namyang, Korea. The appearance of the new Rio is defined by straight lines and smooth surfacing, giving the car a distinctive new look and more mature character than its predecessor.
 
At the front, the Rio wears the latest evolution of Kia’s ‘tiger-nose’ grille, now thinner in height and wider across the front of the car, with a gloss black grille mesh and surround. The grille is integrated with the newly-designed headlamps, more sculpted for a sharper look, and featuring an optional new U-shaped LED daytime running light signature. The Rio’s side vents – which house the car’s front fog lamps, depending on market – are moved outwards and upwards in the front bumper compared to their position on the third-generation model, adding greater visual width to the front of the car for a stronger overall look. The longer bonnet features bracket-shaped creases that run down from the base of the A-pillars to the grille and headlamps.
 
In profile, the fourth-generation Rio’s lengthened, more balanced stance is achieved with a long bonnet and longer front overhang, a 10 mm longer wheelbase (up to 2,580 mm), a thinner, more upright C-pillar, and a shorter rear overhang. Overall, the new car is 15 mm longer than its predecessor, at 4,065 mm in length, and 5 mm lower (now 1,450 mm tall). Straight, clearly-defined lines run down the full length of the car’s shoulder and along its doors, further stretching the appearance of the car for a more confident look.
 
The rear section of the Rio is now more upright, with a near-vertical rear windscreen. The straight line that runs from the grille, through the headlamps and along the top of the doors, continues around the back of the car, paired with thinner, more sculpted rear lamps, available with optional LEDs which feature a new arrow-shaped light signature. Like the wider-looking ‘face’ of the car, the rear design of the new Rio gives the car a stronger overall appearance.
 
The new Rio is manufactured as a five-door model, and is available in a choice of 10 exterior colours, with two different aluminium alloy wheel designs, ranging from 14- to 17-inches in diameter. At the car’s entry level, the Rio is equipped with 14-inch steel wheels and stylish wheel covers.
 
A four-door sedan variant will be added to the all-new Rio lineup in the second half of 2017.
 
Interior design
The new Kia Rio features a modern new cabin, with sculptural forms and a more ergonomic layout than its predecessor. The interior has also been designed to accommodate the Rio’s new infotainment system.
 
Like the exterior, straight lines running the width of the dashboard characterise the shape of the interior, giving the cabin a wider appearance and increasing the sense of space for occupants. As well as long, lateral lines that govern the shape of the dashboard, horizontal vents further add to the visual width of the cabin, replacing the vertical vents of the third-generation model. Gloss black trim lines the central section of the dashboard.
 
The dashboard itself is now angled towards the driver, a layout which provides the car with a sportier, more driver-focused design and a more premium character. At the centre of the dashboard is a ‘floating’ HMI (human-machine interface), available as a 5.0-inch touchscreen audio system with six speakers.
 
Below the infotainment system, the driver-oriented centre console features fewer buttons, with more ergonomic, concave switches and rotator dials below to control the heating and ventilation.
 
Powertrains
The new Kia Rio is powered by a a choice of lightweight naturally-aspirated 1.6-liter or 1.4-liter MPI (multi-point injection) gasoline engines. The DOHC 16-valve D-CVVT (dual continuously variable valve timing) 1.6-liter engine drives the front wheels and produces up to 123 ps at 6,300 rpm and 151 Nm maximum torque at 4,850 rpm. Meanwhile, its 1.4-liter counterpart produces 100 ps at 6,000 rpm and 133 Nm maximum torque at 4,000 rpm. - TradeArabia News Service