Paris show: Kia ‘Trazor’ small SUV shapes up

MORE details surrounding Kia’s upcoming small SUV have emerged, as the brand prepares to take on the bestselling Mitsubishi ASX and Mazda CX-3 in the first half of next year with an as-yet unnamed model featuring 2.0-litre power and family-friendly levels of interior space.

Deriving many visual and dimensional cues from the SP Concept revealed at the Auto Expo in India in February, the sub-Sportage newcomer is expected to debut at the Paris motor show in October.

Mooted be badged Trazor (if an online naming poll held by Kia in India suggesting four possibilities including Tuster, Trailster and SP-Z is to be trusted), it will be built on the same architecture in South Korea that underpins the Hyundai Kona released last year.

The latter employs many platform components from the small-car-sized Hyundai i30 and latest Kia Cerato, bringing a larger overall base than key competitors such as the CX-3 and Honda HR-V, which are twinned with the smaller Mazda2 and Jazz superminis respectively.

Importantly, it also means that the main front-drive versions of the Trazor/SP Concept will most likely be powered by the Kona’s gutsy 2.0-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol unit, producing 110kW of power and 180Nm of torque, and paired to a six-speed torque-converter automatic.

Likewise, any up-spec all-wheel-drive versions could use a 130kW/265Nm 1.6-litre turbo-petrol and seven-speed dual-clutch combo, complete with multi-link rear suspension in place of the others’ torsion beam arrangement.

The Trazor’s larger footprint and 2.0-litre engine availability augur well for Australian consumers, according to Kia Motors Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero, particularly compared to the more diminutive and very Euro-centric Stonic small SUV that Kia unveiled a year ago, powered by engines maxxing out at just at 1.4 litres in petrol form and 1.6 litres in diesel.

“If we were ever going to fill that gap in the Kia model line-up, and it is a gap, we would do it properly,” he told GoAuto at the new Cerato launch in Adelaide last week.

“When we finally tick that small SUV box, we will do it with the right product … and with the SP Concept showed in India and coming out of Korea, when the time comes, I think we will have a better product that fills that gap, one which shares a platform with Kona and has the kind of powertrain Australians expect from a small SUV.

“Whilst the right product for Europe, the Stonic is based off the Rio platform – it has small displacement engines with good fuel economy, but it’s not what Australians want in a small SUV.

“Australians want at least 100kW of power, so to get that you need at least a 2.0-litre displacement, and Australians want something they could treat like an SUV – load it up with kids, load it up with groceries.”

Mr Rivero added that Kia Europe benchmarked the Stonic against the Ford Fiesta-based EcoSport, a bad omen since the latter sells only a fraction of what the CX-3 manages in Australia (6946 registrations for the Mazda against just 402 for the Ford in the first five months of this year).

“And we all know how the Ford EcoSport has done in the Australian market…,” he said. “So, we deemed that Stonic was not the right product for our market.”