KIA MOTORS is forging ahead with it all-new K8 premium sport sedan that, the automaker says, ”combines innovation and performance with a progressive and elegant exterior design.
For sure. it’s a great-looking automobile, but it won’t (The Corner annoyingly found right at the end of the l-o-n-g media release) will not come to South Africa.
The K8 is a new model name for Kia, the first in the K-Series to realise the company’s new brand strategy, including the contemporary new logo that sits at the front of the sedan.
Karim Habib, head of Kia’s design centre in Namyang, South Korea, told The Corner in a media release: ”This K8 sport sedan was designed with innovation and elegance at its very core. Its progressive exterior takes on character and emotion for an expressive, futuristic-looking, nose and a dynamic swooping rear, taking inspiration from some of the world’s finest luxury yachts.”
The nose has a new signature frameless ‘tiger’s nose’ – long a Kia feature – integrated with the front bumper has intricate diamond latticework intended to express movement of light; the front lights include turn signals that resemble shining diamonds and at the very front is the new Kia logo.
The K8 is almost exactly five metres long, a measurement emphasising with what Kia calls ”a sporty profile with a dynamic character line. A spoiler finishes roofline and diode rear light clusters are said to emphasise ”clean, angular, lines.
Drive comes from a front-wheel drive system.
Every element of the cabin interior, Kia points out, ”was designed with high-end luxury in mind” and that meant using wood features.
READ MORE Kia features on Carman’s Corner
A curved display links two 30cm displays: a data display and an entertainment centre featuring full internet connectivity and the brand’s first use of audio from Meridian that includes 14 speakers.
Habib added: “The cabin is a canvas for uncompromised comfort, a first-class travel space that fulfils the needs of driver and passengers, part of a modern sedan with a dynamic exterior that is matched by its progressive and elegant cabin.
”This car – our first since Kia’s rebranding – puts us on the path forward as we look to realize our future goals. The cabin has selected materials, including leather, and intricate and detailed wood finishing and exposed high-quality metals that marry traditional with contemporary.”
A wood-trimmed centre console carries cupholders and soft-touch switches alongside a shift-by-wire transmission dial and the steering-wheel has the brand’s new logo that, the automaker says, ”expresses symmetry, rhythm and rising elements”.
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