How was the Kia Carens designed: Designer explains

Kia’s latest vehicle in the line-up will be the Carens. The MPV was recently unveiled and the prices will be revealed in the first half of next year. The design was one of the highlights of the Carens because it does not look like a MPV at first glance. Here, we have a video shared by Kia that talks us through how Carens was designed.

The video starts with Taek-Gyun Kim, Head of Exterior Design talking about Kia’s new design philosophy of opposites united. The designer says that they take inspiration from the contrast of nature and create a synergy of opposition.

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Carens is the first vehicle that is based on the new design philosophy. The exterior has been designed to look like a SUV. The front has an aggressive bumper, flat bonnet while the side gets a thick plastic cladding that makes Carens look rugged. At the rear, there is an upright tailgate with a split LED tail lamp design and a rugged-looking bumper.

Dimensions

Kia Carens measures  4,540 mm in length, 1,800 mm in width, 1,700mm in height. It has a wheelbase of 2,780 mm which is the longest in the segment. We were expecting that Alcazar and Carens will have similar dimensions but Carens are larger. The Alcazar measures 4,500 mm in length, 1,790 mm in width, 1,675 mm in height. Even the wheelbase is greater than the Alcazar’s 2,760 mm. In fact, Carens’s wheelbase is 30 mm longer than the Toyota Innova Crysta.

Safety Equipment

Kia Carens will come with a lot of safety equipment as standard. It will get an Anti-lock braking system, Electronic Stability Control, Hill Start Assist, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, Rear Parking Sensors, all Four disc brakes and 6 airbags.

Engine and gearbox

Kia has not yet announced the engine options officially. But what we do know is that there will be a diesel engine and there could be multiple petrol engines on offer.

The diesel engine will be a 1.5-litre unit that is doing duty on the Hyundai Alcazar, Verna, i20, Kia Seltos and Sonet. Depending on the vehicle, the engine has been tuned slightly differently. In Carens, the engine will produce 115 PS of max power and 250 Nm of peak torque. It will be offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox.

Kia currently has three petrol engines that can do duty on the Carens. There is the 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine and a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine that comes with direct injection. All the engines are offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard. You can also get some kind of automatic transmission with all the engines.

Features

Being a Kia, Carens will come with a lot of features. There will be ambient lighting, Bose sound speaker, a touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, voice commands, a multi-function steering wheel, electric adjustment for driver seat, electric sunroof, digital instrument cluster, ventilated seats and much more.

Prices and Rivals

Kia is expected to price the Carens between Rs. 16 lakhs ex-showroom to Rs. 20 lakhs ex-showroom. It will be going against Hyundai Alcazar, Tata Safari, Mahindra XUV700, Toyota Innova Crysta and MG Hector Plus.

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