Close in the lines of other popular SUVs, the Kia Rio SUV is about to receive a big upgrade.
The latest version of the car is about to receive a plug-in hybrid technology allowing the car to be eco-friendly.
The automobile manufacturer Rio is about to build a new supermini car and along with it, they have planned to launch a crossover so as to compete with the changing trends. Most manufacturers by now has a crossover SUV and the Kia Rio SUV is going to fill up the empty slot. However, in terms of pricing, the car will be priced much higher than its supermini variant. According to industry analysts, the pricing of the car should be around £14,000.
An official teaser has been released by Kia that depicts how the baby SUV would look like. The design is a prototype and the engineering team might choose to go with some radical changes with the production version. Inside sources who have access to Kia’s claim that the manufacturer has planned to rollout the supermini model first after which a new car based on the next gen Rio will be out by the end of 2017 or by early 2018.
One of the biggest complaints that customers had about the earlier version of Rio is the limited space and passenger room. Built on a new chassis, the new car will be much more spacious and practical than its outgoing edition. The popular design cues from Kia models including the tiger grille will be used in the new model. It is also expected to look quite sporty so that it can compete against the Nissan Juke that has been enjoying a fair share of the market.
Kia is keen on including a plug-in hybrid variant with the 1.6-liter engine. Electrifying the model will allow them to make it more contemporary when it gets launched in 2018. The car will be on par with the existing Soul available with Kia. The particular car already has a dedicated electric car in its lineup. It has a powertrain that delivers up to 109 horsepower and a maximum of 132 miles. If the new Rio SUV is to use the same, it will have a lower mile range because of being a plug-in hybrid variant. The model will automatically switch to the petrol engine when the electric motor runs out of power. A more toned down design is what Kia has confirmed for the upcoming Rio SUV.
