Kia, the wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai, based out of Korea, has revealed first sketches of its under development and soon to be launched Stonic sub-compact SUV. The SUV is slated for a market launch in the second half of this year. Internationally, once launched, the Kia Stonic will be competing against the likes of Nissan Juke and Toyota C-HR.
The sketches reveal an impressive looking crossover in Kia Stonic with sweeping roofline, sculpted surfaces and muscular wheel arches no doubt. However, similar to many other sketches of cars, the reality will be far from the exciting design and much less dramatic.
While no images of the interior were released today by the Korean manufacturer, Kia states that the Stonic SUV will have a “European-designed cabin [that] echoes the appearance of the exterior, with straight lines, smooth surfaces and geometric design forms”.
Being a compact SUV, it is all the more imperative for the auto manufacturer to liberate maximum interior space and the Hyundai’s subsidiary company plans to do it with smart packaging to maximize space for all the occupants. A ‘floating’ human machine interface (HMI) is also planned to seamlessly integrate with the dashboard and provide smartly blended access to the user’s smartphones with that of the car’s functions.
Kia has also confirmed that the Kia Stonic can be easily customizable with the ability to heavily personalize both the interior as well as the exterior of the car as per one’s taste.
Kia’s parent company Hyundai is already gearing up to launch its upcoming SUV Kona about which we had reported earlier here. The Kia’s Stonic will be the perfect sister SUV to the bigger Hyundai Kona and is expected to be offered with a 1.4-liter petrol and 1.6 liter diesel engine in Europe. The US spec model might carry a more potent 1.6-liter petrol unit.
While Kia has not revealed about an all-wheel drive option of the sub compact SUV, expecting one might be bit of a stretch.
[Source: Carscoops]