The Kia Picanto has been given a facelift, unveiled in South Korea (where it is marketed as the Kia Morning) nearly four years since the second-generation TA was launched. Kia’s A-segment city car gets an assortment of aesthetic tweaks, extra features and a new turbocharged engine.
Styling changes are relatively minor – the front fascia has been restyled with a reshaped “tiger nose” upper grille, a more rounded lower grille and smaller fog lights, while the rear gets a sportier bumper design with a blacked out lower insert.
Inside, there are new colour and trim options, available cruise control (said to be the first for the segment), footwell lights, a revised SD card-based navigation system and a new knee airbag, raising the total airbag count to seven.
The existing 1.0 litre Kappa II naturally-aspirated petrol three-cylinder engine has been uprated to produce 78 PS – up 9 PS from before – while torque holds station at 94 Nm. Fuel consumption figures are 15.2 km per litre with the four-speed automatic gearbox and 16.2 km per litre for the five-speed manual. It remains to be seen if the larger 87 PS/119 Nm 1.25 litre four-pot we get over here will receive any changes.
What is new for the facelift, however, is a turbocharged version of the 1.0 litre mill, dubbed TCI. The forced-induction engine makes 106 PS at 6,000 rpm and 137 Nm from 1,600-3,500 rpm, while delivering fuel consumption of 14.0 km per litre. Unlike elsewhere in the range, a CVT is fitted as standard to the TCI.
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wow..hope it arrives here soon
one question though, does the 1.0 turbocharged cvt produce better fuel consumption compared to non-turbo 1.0 4AT ? the turbo does affect fuel consumption is it?
Depending on the weight of the systems (assumed same), the CVT should provide better figure, if all conditions same.
While the Turbo may have you think that, if assuming KIA have done the necessary ECU calibrations – then the CVT should be working to the Turbo’s advantage (since there are infinite gear ratios = a virtual gear for each rev band to help turbo efficiency = fuel economy).
They copy Iriz？ How dare you！！
Good look, good build maybe, but RV bad for sure.
If buy for own use for long term (9 years), still oklar.
RV again. Are you afraid people buy korean car instead of japanese car so it will make you no japanese car to sell? No worry, in that time you can sell korean car. Just smile and accept the improvement of the WORLD
We’ve amended the story with fuel consumption figures for the naturally-aspirated models.
I like the aluminium accents on the older model but still the interior is pretty darn amazing for the money.
Best spec-ed small car on earth
For people who want small car with full safety feature, this is the best choice we can get and affordable.
Another great effort from the Koreans. See when they do facelift, they change a lot more than just wheels and/or addition of more chrome to the body.
That 1L turbo GDI offers almost as much power as Ford’s 1L Ecoboost. And Ford’s 1L Ecoboost was awarded one of the best engine in this decade
Sadly, in SE Asia, many people actually got super excited when their favourite T brand offer new paint colors or new wheels for the model year and then called it ‘all new’
Nah, they just need to stick on a few stickers then wala~ ALL NEW!
I was quite tempted to buy initially but after knowing manual version is a stripped off version, idea dropped.
Test driven this Kia picanto before, i must say, for a small car, its driving experience is quite decent. (compared in its segment of course)
Adding turbo to its drivetrain is very commendable. Kia’s weakness was always related to its weak engine output in the past. Whether the GDI will make it to our country remains to be seen though.
For those have mistaken Turbo = Good FC, i think i put a simple explanation here. Turbo = more air crammed into the chamber, thus increasing its compression ratio and therefore achieving greater efficiency and output using the SAME amount of fuel compared to Naturally Aspirated (NA) engine.
Basically said, your car will go extra miles if having turbocharger using the same amount of fuel (meaning tekan pedal same amount as you did when using NA engines), thus achieving better FC.
However, if a person loves to do sudden acceleration and sudden braking, then this FC improvement is as good as nothing. At this point, Turbocharger will only provides better output only.
Putting that aside, 6 airbags and ESC plus other various toys and features since 2014 is already top in its segment. Nothing to complain really.
If i were to nitpick, it would be its handling. Better feedback would be appreciated.
Let me explain easily, Turbo is sucking some cold air outside and get cooled by intercooler (more cool more power because oxygen) and goes into Intake. More oxygen means more BOOM inside the engine. So it just a power adder. Anyway the engine doesn’t drink many fuel except they changed its ECU.
Owned one of their first generation CBU Picanto before. First, the auto gear box kaput after 3 years, had it repaired but lasted for only 3 months. The claimed FC was a toal bullshit; remember KIA was punished and fined heavily by US for false claims on their vehicle mileage. Would not even dare to look at this car again.
the more easier explaination will be, turbo cars give the same output as a higher cc NA cars but the turbo car is using a lower cc engine
means u cnt compare the FC of a turbo car wif the same cc as a NA car, lets say axia 1.0L engine punya FC u canot compare wif dis picanto 1.0 turbo engine, dis 1.0 turbo engine wont b more fuel efficient than the axia engine, it will b around the same or slightly higher, but it produce almost double the hp bcos of the turbo
hence it hav the output and performance of a 1.5 or 1.6L NA car, and u shuld compare it wif those higher cc engines, in which yes the 1.0L turbo engine is alot more efficient n use less fuel than those 1.5/1.6 NA engines, n dis is hw u compare the FC of a turbo engine against a NA engine, always compare it wif the higher cc engine and not the same cc but NA engine
This is my kind of a car, looks like a sleepers but has racing technology inside the engine.Also its kicking the torque at 1,600-3,500 rpm!! More torque than your Myvi at the same price!! This is what called as Economical Daily Driven car!
So we seem to all agree that this is a good car then…
But but but, we forgot something… the after sales service of Naza….
aiyoo, new facelift but no anti snatch hook or retractable cup holder (like ‘new’ myvi). also no new bodykit (like vios) thus cant call it facelift lorr.. kia shouldve follow T & P2, just add more cup holders or add tissue compartment box only, then announce it as ‘new’ picanto. sam loo & maserati (official) will not approve of this new picanto, because kia only upgrade safety features. to both of them, cup holder / new bodykit / tissue box is far more important upgrade than adding more airbags or putting ESC. haha
What a sarcasm, totally you forget about KIA Motorsport sticker like TRD stickers.
Such a zippy city car.The torque comes in very handy as Malaysian will carry people,lots of people in a small car.
Makes driving it lots better than na smal city car.
I do like the Picanto.
Reasonably well built, rides and drives well, good safety features, nice looker.
Its only problem is weight, being nearly 100kg heavier than the bigger Myvi, which the 1.25 Kappa sometimes struggles with.
This new turbo will address its weakest point.