Unveiled: The Kia Picanto Sees a Jaw-Dropping Transformation

Unveiled: The Kia Picanto Sees a Jaw-Dropping Transformation 

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The Kia Picanto is a popular petite hatch in SA with its affordability, frugality and ease of maintenance. But with Kia's current mindset shift to produce more premium, higher quality cars, it seems to want more from its Picanto. It is no longer "cheap" and is now a lively, modernised city car with lots of character.

While the price is an apparent change-up, its exterior, too, has seen a relatively drastic transformation. The new look maintains the overall shape while the front and rear bumpers are completely redesigned. Its menacing headlights, which cut through the front end, are bold, and the boxy grille with side cut-outs inspires a somewhat sporty look.

The back end maintains this new style with a rear bumper which houses what looks like a diffuser on the GT Line derivative. The taillight clusters look especially slim, with a horizontal light strip running across the width of the rear.

Even the side profile has new additions with details, tiny side skirts, and a body design that rolls over the rear wheels. Speaking of wheels, the new 16" alloys hold a squared shape resembling the style of the Maserati MC20's wheels. 

The current engine options remain with the 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder and 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder options.

Pricing has yet to be released, but we estimate the new Picanto to fetch a price tag between R210,000 and R250,000. It might still be some time before we see this hot-looking tiny hatch on our roads, but all we can hope for in the meantime is that it remains affordable.

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