Kia motors (partly owned by Hyundai Motors) is one of the popular small car maker based out of Korea. Kia cars sell across many countries including many developed western countries on the world. Kia motors has many times expressed interest to launch cars in India but it was called off due to unknown reasons. This time, it seems, Kia is finally taking some baby steps to enter Indian Automobile market with its globally popular small car, the Kia Picanto. The Picanto has been spied testing in Chennai and the car was a Left Hand Drive. It is a possibility that the car is a test mule before company decides to convert it into a RHD for India. On the other hand, it maybe a global test mule for road test in India and not a part of Indian launch test, but nothing is official as of now.
image – Kia Picanto Front Side View
Kia Picanto Specifications and Features
The international models of Kia Picanto are powered by three different engines, a 1 litre Kappa engine with max power of about 68 BHP, a 1.2 Litre Kappa Engine with max power of about 86 BHP (like Hyundai i10 engine) and a 1 litre FFV engine with 79 BHP of peak power. The Picanto is a very fuel efficient car coupled to a 5 speed manual transmission. Internationally, it is also available with a 4 speed automatic transmission just like the Hyundai i10.
image – Kia Picanto Front Side View
Just like Hyundai cars, Kia also offers premium interiors and is known for its comfort and convince features even at lower price point. Some of the comfort and convince features of International models include smart-key entry system with engine start-stop button, AUX, iPod and USB connections for the music player with MP3 compatibility, Bluetooth hands-free with voice recognition, active head restraints, reversing parking sensors etc..
image – Kia Picanto Rear Side View
From the form factor, the car looks very compact and falls well within 4 meters and also has an engine option of less than 1.2 litre in petrol which makes it eligible for small car excise duty bracket in India. If launched in India, the Picanto can be aggressively priced close to Rs. 4 lakh price tag which will be a direct competition to its own sibling Hyundai i10, and popular cars like the Maruti Wagon R, Chevrolet Beat, Ford Figo petrol etc..
image – Kia Picanto Rear view
It will be interesting to see whether we will see Picanto at the Auto Expo 2012 in Delhi or not. We will update you with any new happenings on the same. Stay tuned to out official Facebook Page and sign up for our free email newsletter to never miss our updates.
image credits – RiotEngine.in
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