After it was previously spied in prototype format in South Korea and Germany, the Kia Picanto facelift is now ready for production. Even though what you can admire above is the Asian-spec model, known as the Morning, do expect similar styling cues to adorn the European-spec variant of the manufacturer’s city car.
The TA generation Kia Picanto made its debut at Geneva in 2011, after which it received a mild facelift in 2014. As you can see in the photo gallery below, the 2015 redesign is far more serious than last year’s. The current generation of the Hyundai i10 may be far younger than its sibling from Kia, but the Picanto barely shows any strands of gray hair.
Measuring 3,595 mm (141.5 inches) in length and boasting with a 2,385 mm (93.89 inches) wheelbase, the 2015 Kia Morning is available with three engine options: two 1.0 Kappa petrol engines (a normal mill and a petrol-LPG bi-fuel), joined by a 1-liter Kappa TCI turbocharged three-cylinder. In terms of oomph, the N/A mills develop 78 horsepower, while the 1.0 TCI turbo three-pot churns out an enthusiastic 106 hp.
As for transmission options, a five-speed manual comes as standard on the 1.0 Kappa and 1.0 Kappa Bi-Fuel. If rowing through the gears manually isn’t your thing, a four-speed automatic is also available as an option. The Kappa 1.0 TCI turbo is mated exclusively to a CVT box. According to the South Korean government fuel economy standards, the TCI uses a liter of petrol every 14 km on the combined cycle, which translates to 7.1 liters/100 km or 40 UK mpg.
It’s hard to understand the man who programmed Google to translate Korean as bad as it did when we tried to figure out more data about the mildly redesigned Kia Morning / Picanto, but those images don’t lie. The visual makeover comprises of new bumpers and fog lights, a better “Tiger Nose” front grille, a little nip & tuck to the headlights and taillights and a new multimedia system of higher spec models.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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