Kia Looking into Sporty Rio Turbo

With both Kia and Hyundai growing into global contenders, the need for flagships across the model range has become evident for the South Koreans. Every time there’s mention of a hot version of the Sonata, i30, cee'd and more, officials always admit they need such a vehicle. But the lessons learned from Lotus should be clear for everybody: you can’t build them all at the same time.

While at the Geneva Motor Show, Australian publication CarAdvice spoke to Kia’s European head of powertrain development, Joachim Hahn, who talked about the need for a hot Rio.

“Yes we should look at turbo engines in Rio. We already produce turbocharged engines and what we will bring out in Kia within the next 12 months is a European turbocharged GDi engine,” Hahn says. 

But Kia needs to build the sporty pro_cee’d hatch/coupe first. This is rumored to get the same 1.6-liter T-GDi engine as the Veloster Turbo, though guessing outputs is impossible at the moment. The aforementioned car has famously been detuned for the European market to just over 180 hp, and if they go any lower than this, the Rio won’t have any sportiness left to take on the VW Polo GTI.

The current engine range for the all-new fourth-generation Rio includes the 1.1-liter three-cylinder turbodiesel with stop-start, as well as 1.25-liter and 1.4-liter petrol units.

Courtesy of Autoevoltuion