Kia Rio sedan for India – Honda City rival

Kia is working on not just making its entry into India, but even it seems to be planning its Indian product portfolio as well.

Kia is Hyundai’s sister concern and it will be making its way into India very soon. The Korean automaker is likely to get the Rio sedan to India to compete with the Honda City and the Maruti Ciaz. This brand is looking high levels of localisation with Hyundai being its local support. Kia will be inaugurating its first Indian plant in Anantpura and this isn’t too far from Hyundai’s Tamil Nadu plant. Learn more on the new Kia Rio sedan.

Kia is planning on getting multiple new cars in India as it doesn’t just have Hyundai to help it to enhance its localisation but at the same time, Hyundai and Kia share the same platforms too. This will mean that both the companies will have a lot of vendors in common. This will simplify Kia’s work in India. Apart from product development and dealer set-up, the company might not have to worry on localising a product in India. This will even mean that Kia is looking at increasing its base in India. With Hyundai being the second largest seller in the country, the amount of efforts Kia will have to spend to understand Indian market will be lesser. At the same time, Kia’s new boss had been Hyundai’s chief for Indian operations. This certainly seems to be a lot of positivity for the brand even before it has set its foot in the Indian car market.

Kia Rio sedan Launch Date

With Hyundai now working towards making itself into a premium brand, it seems that Kia could begin with premium products and work on offering excellent value for money at that range. The Kia Rio sedan is likely to be one of the first few products that will make it into India and this should be sometime in 2019 itself. We can even expect Kia to roll out its brand at the 2018 Auto Expo. This will mean that the company shall be looking at making an instant impact on the Indian car market with its new products.

Also Read: Hyundai Verna 2017 | Honda City 2017 | Maruti Ciaz 2017 | VW Vento 2017

Kia Rio sedan Price

Price is the key to success. Kia will have very high levels of localisation. This is what will make it an excellent price tag. Lets be honest, the new Kia Rio shall be offered mostly at a price undercutting the Hyundai. Hyundai might be the more premium brand of the two.

So, we reckon the pricing of the new Kia Rio sedan should be somewhere in between INR 9 lakhs to INR 13.5 lakhs (on-road). It is of course very early to say something like that, but we reckon that is how the brand could be moving towards.

Kia Rio sedan Design

If you like the design of Hyundai cars, you will love the Kia styling. The Tiger Nose front grille of the Kia continues on the Rio sedan as well. This brand has been designing some absolutely stunning cars and one of them is the Rio sedan. Kia Rio looks appealing with stylish front grille, projector headlamps and daytime running LEDs too. The side profile is well proportionate. For India, Kia should be getting 16-inch wheels to fill the wheel well. The rear seems similar to the existing Hyundai SUVs. This is what exactly it resembles. Kia does have a lot of overlaps with Hyundai’s design language.

Kia Rio sedan Interiors

Kia Rio sedan gets high quality interiors. There is a three-spoke steering wheel with steering mounted controls. A large 7-inch touchscreen system with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, reverse camera, push start and stop. There will dual airbags and ABS as a standard feature. There are more than sufficient features on this sedan. It should even get rear AC vents, rear charging port, keyless entry etc. The dashboard will have Kia’s HMI (human-machine interface).

In terms of space, this should have good head room and knee room for front and rear passengers. The boot size will also be reasonably large.

This is what will make the Kia Rio sedan a good option.

Kia Rio sedan Engine and Transmission

We reckon Kia will be introducing the 1.0-litre turbo petrol and a 1.4-litre petrol engine options on the Rio sedan. The diesel shall be a 1.4-litre and a 1.6-litre as well. Both the petrol and diesel engines should be producing somewhere in the range of 90bhp to 125bhp. These will be coming mated to a six-speed manual and an option of a six-speed automatic too.