Currently reading: Geneva motor show 2011: New Kia Picanto
Second-generation city car gets new engines and a fresh look - full details and pictures

Kia is aiming for a younger and more style-conscious customer with the new Picanto supermini, due to make an appearance at the Geneva motor show in March.

The second-generation city car, has a much more stylish and confident look than its forebear.

See the official pics of the new Kia Picanto

Kia’s ‘tiger eye’ grille gives the car recognisable visual links with several larger models in the Kia line-up, while its upright stance, stub nose and backwards-swept headlights strike a particularly strong fraternal resemblance with the Venga mini-MPV.

Elsewhere on the car, as Kia design boss Peter Schreyer explains, “significant sculpting and a prominent rising character line results in a layering of light and shadow that breaks up the height of the car, giving it a more surefooted stance”.

Read more on the new Kia Picanto

Although Kia has yet to release photographs of the car’s interior, Autocar understands that it features a two-spoke steering wheel, as well as satin-finish material trims for a hi-tech, more expensive ambience. Audio and air conditioning controls will be concentrated on a centralised console.

The new Picanto is longer than the outgoing car, with a longer wheelbase to provide more cabin space for occupants. Like the outgoing car, it will be offered as a five-door globally, but a sportier three-door will be available in Europe.

The new Picanto will be powered by a choice of 1.0-litre three-cylinder and 1.25-litre four-cylinder petrol engines to begin with. A 1.1-litre, four-cylinder CRDi diesel Picanto will also join the range after launch, offering 74bhp and 112lb ft of torque. Biofuel and LPG versions will be offered in other global markets.

Matt Saunders

See all the latest Kia Picanto reviews, news and video

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce PhantomTesla RoadsterAriel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren SennaRenault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.

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