- Fresh appearance inside and out for Kia’s B-segment global best-seller
- Enhanced Rio range now on sale across Europe
The Kia enhanced Kia Rio is now on sale across Europe, featuring a number of improvements to maintain its competitiveness.
“The Kia Rio was our best-selling vehicle nameplate worldwide in 2014, with a total of 500,506 sales, and among our top-three sellers here in Europe with 58,702 units delivered. Improvements to this model are of major significance for our brand,” commented Michael Cole, Chief Operating Officer, Kia Motors Europe.
“The immense popularity of the Rio shows that our designers and engineers got most things ‘right’ when creating the fourth-generation of our compact B-segment challenger in 2011. The Rio retains the core attributes that have proved so popular with owners, while enhancements include a slight visual makeover, giving it a fresh exterior and interior look,” added Cole.
Under the direction of Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Design Officer of Kia Motors Corporation and Hyundai Motor Group, the Rio design team in Korea has updated the Rio’s ‘tiger-nose grille’ and given the car a newly-designed front bumper and fog lights. Three new alloy wheel designs (available in 15-, 16- and 17-inch) refresh the Rio’s profile and a new rear bumper completes the exterior makeover. In addition, two new paint finishes (Urban Blue and Digital Yellow) have been added to the colour line-up.
The Rio’s cabin is brightened by the addition of chrome accents around the four dashboard air-vents, and the fitting of a newly-designed centre-stack around the audio system. Range-topping EX models have a new cloth trim as standard, while Kia is introducing the option of grey faux leather upholstery on this model.
New optional features for the 2015 Kia Rio include a new DAB digital radio and a new generation of Kia’s AVN (audio-video navigation) system with a 7.0-inch display screen, improved processing speed and faster route calculation (availability of system depends on individual markets).
Depending on individual markets, the enhanced Rio is offered in Europe with a choice of up to four highly efficient engines – ranging in power output from 75 to 109 ps – driving the front wheels via five- or six-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmissions.
Every engine in the enhanced Rio range is available with Kia’s optional second-generation fuel-stretching Start/Stop (ISG) technology (automatic start-stop, advanced alternator control and an upgraded starter motor, as well as the fitment of low-rolling resistance tyres).
The Kia Rio hatchback is manufactured for Europe at Kia’s Sohari plant in Korea. The enhanced Kia Rio is now on-sale across Europe, featuring Kia’s unique 7-Year, 150,000 km warranty.
