KIA HAS announced that its all-new supermini is to be called Picanto and it will play a key role in tripling the company's European sales within two years.
Aimed primarily at active families with young children, the Picanto is said to reflect future trends in the A-segment market, where the proportion of five-door/five-seat cars is expected to increase over the next few years. At the same time, a shift toward five-door models in general will see this sector of the market increase considerably.
Initial Picanto production will be 120,000 vehicles a year, of which 88,000 will be export models. The sales target for Europe is 60,000 next year.
Two petrol engines will be available - a one-litre unit mated to a five-speed manual transmission or a 1.1-litre which will come with either a five-speed manual or four speed automatic transmission. The one-litre engine produces 120 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometre, with the 1.1-litre generating 130 g/km in the manual and 153 g/km in the automatic model.
A 1.1-litre diesel version of the Picanto is planned for release in 2005. Projected figures indicate that the engine will provide 70bhp and will keep CO2 emissions down to 116 g/km.
At this stage there is no indication of prices, although if the current sub-£6,000 Kia Rio is anything to go by, it could be one of the cheapest superminis on the market.