Today we have new pictures of the next-gen Kia Optima / Kia K5, codenamed as JL3 who were caught inside Kia’s factory showing new details as hood, front & rear tailights.
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What we know so far?
You should remember when Albert Biermann have advanced the following information “For the next Optima GT, you can expect an interesting powertrain and suspension at the next level. It’ll be the next level of Kia driving performance.” So let’s find out all the new details.
And we have a lot of new details that confirms his words. The next generation Optima will debut during September 2019 with the first units to be built in April 2019 (P1*) and then two revisions will follow in June 2019 (P2) and the Start of Production set for August 2019. *(P1 means prototype 1).
We have noticed that the next-gen 2021 Kia Optima DL3a (the “a” is because is the North American variant) will suffer a big change in terms of design, and will suppose finally a change, while the current Optima JF (despite is a new model) has a clearly inspiration from the Optima TF. Looks nothing like any Optima before.
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Unfortunately we can’t see much of the new design due to the heavy camouflage that hides a lot of the front end and back end features but we were told the front has a much aggressive design compare to the current Optima and one concern could be the back end, the community might have various opinions to it, but the overall design should make a unique Optima on this new generation. One thing to point out was the rear bumper wasn’t complete done at the time of seeing the car.
The new Kia Optima on its US-spec will have 2 different engines, all turbo-chargered, and will use 3 different transmissions. A 1.6T will be available with two levels of power while one will have the 8-speed AT and the other will kept the 7-speed Dual Clutch.
The star will be the completely new Theta3 engine with 2.5-liter displacement, the new 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission with AWD option and delivering 286hp approximately.
Production taillights caught for the first time
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What is going to happen with the 2.4/2.0?. Is pretty clear, as Hyundai-Kia has suffered a big troubles with these engines, is expected to be gone, and now is confirmed that the new Sonata will premiere the new 2.5-liter engine in the US-market.
They also added “these engine had too many issues for long term, while 1.6T has been really good thus far and brings good power and mpg.” “2.5T should fit nicely with the AWD-DCT and put that power down nice.” they added.
About the interior design, the source told us that the dashboard is very well design and looks similar to what we have seen on the Telluride.
Photo source: Kurdistan Automotive Blog
