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2015 Kia Soul EV Prototype

Spend a few days chatting with the good people of Seoul about their neighbors to the north, and you'll find a pattern emerges. When they first start talking, South Korea's citizenry speaks openly and ardently about seeking reunification with their North Korean brothers and sisters. Yet once you get beyond casual conversation, you'll find that those hopes and wishes aren't all that they first appear to be. Quite reasonably - and despite everyone's best intentions - there's genuine fear that opening the border with communist North Korea would severely tax South Korea's finances, infrastructure and daily lives. It's almost as if reunification feels like something the general public has to say they want, even if they're really not buying into the reality.
It's kind of like the way American consumers and the media have been crying out for electric and hybrid automobiles, yet when it comes time to vote with their pocketbooks, their hearts just aren't in it. There are potential financial and infrastructure concerns, along with lingering worries about how well EVs will integrate into their daily lives. Today, hybrids and plug-ins make up about three percent of new vehicle sales, and the vast majority of those models are gas-electric models - one in particular. Pure electrics aren't yet even a drop in a very large bucket. It's exactly this uncomfortable dichotomy that rings in our heads as we drive through the traffic in Namyang at the wheel of a 2015 Kia Soul EV prototype.
Of course, one can't blame Kia for developing an electric car - it has California's zero-emissions mandates to meet, regardless of whether the segment's sales suggest there's a sound financial strategy attached. Kia officials we spoke with at this early drive of the company's electrified 'box' car seemed to tacitly acknowledge the Soul EV's difficult business case, but pointed to the company's effort to reduce its CO2 output as part of its reason for being. And besides, their beancounters' industry-wide projection for global EV sales in 2018 is 600,000 units, so there's got to be room to grow, right?

New Kia Sportage shots give first glimpse of interior

A 2016 Kia Sportage prototype has made the trek from the Hyundai-Kia Technical Center in Russelsheim, Germany, where we last saw it, to the snows of Northern Sweden. A month ago, we expected inspiration from the KX3 concept, now we can see it plain in the face: the swept-back headlights now sit entirely above a larger grille inlaid with the metallic ornament seen on the Kia Sorento, and the fog light housings take a vertical stance. In back will come new LED taillights with distinct elements for turn signals and reversing lights. We understand this will be the design track that Kia SUVs and crossovers take, which will be differentiated from sedan designs starting with the Optima later this year. We get a shot of the interior this time, too. Based on the steering wheel and what we can tell of the instrument panel behind the engineer's laptop, it looks like the forward section of cabin will get some sculpting but be largely similar to the current model. A smorgasbord of gasoline direct injection, diesel, and small turbo engines should be on the menu at launch, as well as the option of a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. At the low end will be the tweaked, 136-horsepower, 1.6 CRDi launched with the latest i30, at the puissant end should be the 245-hp, T-GDi.

Kia shows sketches of sleek new 2019 K900 sedan

Kia has released two new sketches of the upcoming redesigned K900 sedan, after showing the car's profile last month. No longer resembling a scaled-up Optima, Kia says the design is a joint effort between its global design office in Namyang and the U.S. design studio in Irvine, Calif. The new upscale K900 will gain lines that have definitely been inspired by German manufacturers' luxury offerings — perhaps its design head Peter Schreyer's touch is showing through. The current generation has been with us since 2012, and the new generation might be a strong enough design to improve the K900's modest sales. Kia says the K900's design is based on a concept called "Gravity of Prestige," which certainly has resulted in a restrained, tasteful sedan without gimmicks. Even if the sportback Stinger positioned below the K900 looks good, it's a far more aggressive and whimsical design than what we see in these images. Kia mentions the new "Quadric Pattern" front grille on the K900 as having 176 "jewel-like" cells, which create an illusion of energy much like the spindle grille on the Lexus LF-1 Limitless concept; the headlights in turn are inspired by "the trajectory of light," and are called Duplex Comet lights. These teaser images aren't far from the finished product, as Kia says the K900 will already go on sale on the second quarter of 2018 in selected markets. So a full reveal is surely happening soon. It could be a good candidate for the New York Auto Show, since it's both a U.S. location that would make sense for a car partly designed in America, and it's one of the last big shows before the second quarter of 2018. Related Video: