2020 Kia Picanto facelift launched in S. Korea, priced from INR 7.27 lakh

Today morning, the 2020 Kia Morning, which most markets will get as the 2020 Kia Picanto, was launched in South Korea. The new Kia Picanto facelift has been priced from KRW 1,17,50,000 or INR 7.27 lakh (INR 7,26,586.51).

The 2020 Kia Picanto features a refreshed design, new comfort and convenience features, new safety equipment and an enhanced engine. The facelifted city car sports new front and rear bumpers, revised tiger-nose grille, reshaped lower grille, new 16-inch alloy wheels and tweaked headlamps and tail lamps. All in all, the new model is more expressive and has a more stylish exterior. There’s a new Honeybee colour option as well, seen in the picture above.

The interior design of the new Kia Picanto is the same. However, unlike the old model, the new model features a 4.2-inch colour MID and an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system in a cleaner design.

The new infotainment system allows connecting to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously and features cloud-based voice recognition using Kakao’s AI platform, wireless navigation data updates and various connected car services like remote vehicle start, remote door locking/unlocking, remote AC control, etc. That's not all, this system even packs Car to Home, which can control home internet of things (IoT) devices such as lights, plugs, AC, boilers and gas circuit breakers. So, for customers owning smart home devices, the new model has even more convenience to offer.

Kia has added many advanced safety features to the Picanto with its mid-cycle refresh, including BCA (Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist), RCCA (Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist) RCCA, LKA (Lane Keeping Assist), FCA (Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist) and DAW (Driver Attention Warning).

Moving to the mechanical changes, the Kia Picanto facelift has an improved 1.0-litre MPI naturally aspirated petrol engine linked to a 4-speed automatic transmission. This engine returns a fuel economy of up to 15.7 km/l instead of up to 15.4 km/l. Its maximum power and maximum torque, just like those of the old model, are 76 PS and 9.7 kgf.m (95.12 Nm) respectively.

The old 1.0-litre MPI engine in the old model was available with a 5-speed automatic transmission as well, with which it returned a fuel economy of up to 16.0 km/l. In the old model, there was a 1.0-litre LPi LPG engine as well, with maximum power and maximum torque of 74 PS and 9.6 kgf.m (94.14 Nm) respectively. It was available with only a 4-speed automatic transmission. In other markets, Kia offers the old Picanto with a 1.25-litre MPi N/A petrol engine and a 1.0-litre T-GDi turbocharged petrol engine as well. We'll have to wait until the company announces the new model for its overseas markets to know if they're being carried over.

Also See: Next-gen 2021 Kia Carnival grille, bumpers and interior leaked

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