The Kia Provo concept that debuted at the 83rd Salon International De l’Auto in Geneva (Geneva International Motor Show) certainly entices the street racer within us all, looking to be built with the most current of materials and with the right amount of aggression and a playful cheek about it for looks.
The Provo’s compact package comes in measuring 3.88m-long, 1.77m-wide and 1.35m-high and within this B-Segment hot-hatch of a coupe exists a petrol-powered direct-injection 1.6L turbo engine operated by a start-stop button that’ll be sending 200bhp to the front wheels via a 7-speed DCT transmission, while aided by regenerative-electric motors sending 44bhp to the rears when required and allowing for some low-speed stealthy electric-only propulsion – something that Kia calls a Smart 4WD Hybrid power train.
There won’t be a floor mounted gearbox available, as convention usually dictates, but rather, gear-shifting duties will be handled via paddle-shifters located behind the blood-orange stitched steering wheel with a centre-marker and the steering column will be electrically adjustable.
Kia has provided their Provo with a ‘tiger nose’ grille and a pair of Schreyer-inspired headlamp units that consists of more than 850 programmable LEDs that can be used as daytime running lights (DRLs), high or low beam mode or even race-style configurations.
The Provo also gets a set of uniquely designed 19″ milled-alloy rims wrapped by 225/40 rubbers and set in place by single centre nuts, which should provide it with some excitement in the handling department.
Before getting in, you’ll need to operate a flush-fitting push-up electronic handle on a door that’s made from three individual panels consisting of an outer panel, a carbon-fibre inner panel and a neoprene-covered inner section before revealing its blacked-out interior and it’s single-piece carbon fibre dashboard, allowing the polished aluminium pedals, aluminium toggle switches and a Multi-Media Interface control to stand out.
The latter is located on the centre tunnel where it’ll indicate one of three driving modes (Normal, Cruise and Track) amongst a variety of screen displays to make up the infotainment functions.
Normal mode allows the driver to view a speedometer, rev counter and sat-nav route instructions, while ‘cruise’ displays your current location on an enlarge map with route instructions and a speedometer. Lastly, ‘track’ mode gets you going with a large rev counter, a track-map and a lap-timer.
The seats will be wrapped in quilted leather and rather than folding forward conventionally, Kia has adopted a rotating aluminium track so that the seats spin into the centre of the vehicle for when there are occasions where you need to ferry more than 1 passenger.
And to top it all off, Kia has provided the cockpit with tiny red LEDs located in the doors, airconditioning vents as well as the roof (sounds something like Rolls Royce’s Starlight roof) for some low ambient lighting. On top of that, the aluminium window toggles have been situated in the roof as well.
For the moment, Kia isn’t exactly putting in a schedule for the Provo’s production just yet, but hopefully this one will be rolling out the factory doors within a few short years – the sooner the better we say to give MINI, VW and Citroen to name a few, a real run for their money.
