Kia Sketches New Picanto City Car Ahead of Geneva Show Debut

We've known for a while now that Kia is preparing a successor to its Picanto city car, but today, the South Korean automaker came out with a pair of official renderings and a short announcement which said the small hatchback will get its world premiere at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2011 and go on sale in Europe in late Spring.

Kia added that the Picanto has been penned by the firm's European design team based in Frankfurt, Germany, under the direction of Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, and that it will bring "confidence, solidity and maturity to the A-segment". No other details were released.

New Kia Picanto

The 2012 Kia Picanto mini made its global premiere alongside the also new Rio supermini at the Geneva Motor Show today. The South Korean firm's city car will be offered for the first time with a choice of 5-door and 3-door body styles, with Kia officials expecting the new three-door model to account for 33% of Picanto sales.

Like all recent Kia models, the new Picanto benefits from a far more expressive design inside and out compared to its predecessor. It also promises to offer more space inside as the overall vehicle length has increased by 60 mm, and the wheelbase has grown by 15 mm. These increases, along with the enhanced interior packaging, offer an additional 36mm legroom for the front passengers while trunk capacity has increased by 27 per cent to 200 liters.

Another novelty for the Picanto is the availability of eight different packages for the interior including two environment colors – ebony black and alpine gray, four different cloth options and two additional ‘premium’ trim packages.

In Europe, the Picanto will be offered with a 1.25-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine that produces 85HP and 121Nm of peak torque, and a 1.0-liter three-cylinder unit available in gasoline only (69HP and 95Nm) and LPG / Gasoline Bi-fuel (82HP and 94Nm) versions. The Bi-fuel model features a 35-liter LPG tank and a 10-liter gasoline tank, allowing owners to drive up to 150 km (93 miles) after the LPG has been used up.

All engines come with a standard 5-speed manual, while a 4-speed automatic transmission will be available as an option on the 1.25-liter 85HP engine.

Regular models in the new Picanto line-up will have a CO2 rating of 95 to 105 g/km, while fuel economy will range from 4.2 to 5.9 lt per 100 km (39.9 - 55.6 mpg US).

As with the Rio, all 2012 Picanto models wil also be available with Kia’s fuel-stretching Eco-Dynamics technologies (automatic stop-start – ISG, advanced alternator control, upgraded starter motor and low-rolling resistance tyres), cutting emissions to between 90 and 100 g/km and improving fuel economy to a range of 4.1 to 5.6 lt per 100 km (42.0 - 57.4 mpg US).