Kia claims that the novelty – which is built on the Seltos, but has no name or specs yet – will pave the way for the company into a new segment of the market when sales start in 2022.
The Korean marque started its expansion in India two years ago with the Seltos CUV. Another CUV named Sonet and a single-space van Carnival joined it a while later. At a recent special event, Kia Motors India announced a rebranding as “Kia India” and mentioned this new car, which the local media speculate is a compact van with seven seats.
Rumors started circulating in 2019 that a smaller and more affordable version of the Carnival MPV was coming to the market. The project was said to have approved a year after that, and camouflaged test vehicles matching the description were sighted in South Korea.
If we were to guess, the new model could be a larger car than the Seltos while sharing its powertrain. On its domestic market of India, the Seltos is available with 1.5-liter petrol non-turbo and diesel turbo engines, both rated at 115 PS (113 hp / 85 kW). There is also a 1.4-liter turbo engine with 140 PS (138 hp / 103 kW), but it is likely not affordable enough for the rumored new model.
The production will be localized in India at first, but the model might come to other markets later on.