Today we can share the very first pictures of the next-generation Kia K3/Forte prototype spied on its Sedan variant. It is expected that the fourth generation Forte will have also 5-door crossover variant but its is a surprise to have a sedan variant despite the market trend.
Codenamed as CL4, the new Kia K3 is a vehicle that will carry over the current generation in terms of chassis and powertrain, despite minor updates and the possibility to include a Hybrid variant. Following what Kia have done with the Optima/K5 nameplate, it is expected to be renamed as K3.
Current line-up in the Forte Sedan is a choice of a gasoline engines, including a 1.6 Turbo GDi with 201 hp used for the GT variant, while the rest of the line-up conforms with a 2.0 naturally aspirated and 147 hp. This is the same line-up as Hyundai’s Elantra, despite Elantra has the hybrid, but will Kia launch a new K3 crossover with a hybrid powertrain and compete against its own Niro?.
In the US-market, Kia discontinued the Forte hatch after the second generation of the model while Kia still builds a hatch version of the current generation model but only for markets like South Korea, Australia or Chile marketed as Cerato.
In terms of design and despite the heavy camouflage of the prototype we can see design cues similar to what we already have seen in the EV9. It also remains us to what Kia have done in the recently debuted Picanto facelift, a model that is only available in Europe, South Korea and some emerging markets.
Looking at the back, we can see a coupe silhouette that remembered us the KIA NOVO concept revealed a few years ago but still uses the same treatment as the Picanto for the taillights which made us to question if Kia will apply the same design cues to the remaining ICE vehicles on their line-up.
