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Kia Sportage crossover is feeling 'Sporty' with 2020 refresh

The 2020 Kia Sportage crossover, which has been spied testing on the Nurburgring of all places, gets unveiled this week at the Chicago Auto Show. The 2020 model year marks a light visual refresh for the 2017-on Sportage generation, and among other details, it's recognizable from updated bumpers front and rear. The headlights have been discreetly redone, offering available LED technology, and they also incorporate LED turn signals on select trim levels. In addition, the fog lights are also available with LED. The taillights also have new trim, and there's a redesigned skid plate on both bumpers. You can also spot the 2020 Sportage from a new selection of alloy wheels in 17-, 18- and 19-inch sizes. Inside, the 8-inch touchscreen is standard, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities. Modem-enabled telematics and navigation are optional, as is a wireless smartphone charging tray. The steering wheel is a new design, and "Sofino" leather trim is a new option. For 2020, the optional driver assists have been updated to include attention warning, lane keeping assist, high beam assist, adaptive cruise, start-stop and a forward collision assist with pedestrian detection. The cruise control radar is visible in the middle of the tiger-nose grille, below the Kia emblem. The powertrain continues as previously, with a naturally aspirated, 181-hp 2.4 and a 2.0-liter, 240-hp turbo four on offer, and a choice of FWD or AWD to go with the standard six-speed automatic. No mild hybrid has yet been announced, but we're expecting it to appear later on — sans diesel power. As for the trim levels, there's a new S level joining previous LX, EX and SX trims, and according to Kia, S stands for "Sporty"; it features sporty trim both inside and outside. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Provo concept name has Kia embroiled in terrorism controversy?

In the relatively lengthy press release that Kia composed for the launch of its Provo concept car at the Geneva Motor Show this week, the company never mentioned where the name came from, or what it means for the car. A very basic web search for "Provo" reveals that the inspiration for the hatch could have been a city in Utah, a township in South Dakota or a village in Bosnia. The name could be a reference to either an American (Fred) or Canadian (Dwayne) football player, and Provo might also accurately reference a "Dutch counterculture movement in the mid-1960s" or a ship in the US Navy. More likely than any of those, however, is that the Kia designers of the concept - a car that was wholly a product of the Korean automaker's design studios in Frankfurt, for the record - meant it as a play on the existing Pro_cee'd hatchback.
What the designers and Kia executives that signed off on the Provo almost certainly did not have in mind was a reference to a street name for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. That "Provo" was, according to TheDetroitBureau.com, an outlawed army faction that was blamed for some 2,000 deaths in Northern Ireland during a period stretching from 1970 to 1997.
And yet, it was that association that led Gregory Campbell, a member of parliament from Northern Ireland, to introduce legislation that would ban Kia from selling a car under the name Provo. Kia, quick to realize the sizable gaffe it has stumbled into with the name, has reportedly already promised not to use the name for a production vehicle.

Kia will launch a fully autonomous car by 2030

Kia promises to have a fully autonomous vehicle on sale by 2030, and the South Korean automaker will provide an early preview at that next-gen tech by launching the Drive Wise sub-brand at the Consumer Electronics Show. The new branding will encompass all of the company's advanced driver assistance systems and innovations in the human-machine interface over the next 15 years. Before Kia's fully driverless vehicle hits the street, the company thinks that partially autonomous Drive Wise technology could be ready by 2020. These early steps are largely what the company has on display at CES. Tech like Highway Autonomous Driving and Urban Autonomous Driving use sensors and GPS to allow a model to control itself. An Emergency Stop System can automatically get the car off the road if there's a problem, and an electronic valet would even allow a vehicle to park without a driver inside. Kia took a major step toward its autonomous future in December 2015 when it received permission from Nevada to test driverless tech on public roads there with a Soul EV (pictured above). The company and Hyundai have also pledged $2 billion in research through 2018 to help bring these advanced systems into production. Kia also folds future in-vehicle tech under the Drive Wise branding, and its I-Cockpit concept shows some of these solutions off at CES. This demonstrator of a next-gen vehicle cabin supports gesture controls and can detect an owner's fingerprint to adapt the interior to the person's preferred music and climate settings. Autonomous tech is one of the hottest parts of the auto industry right now, and a host of companies are ready to challenge Kia's coming innovations. For example, General Motors plans to test a network of driverless vehicles with ridesharing service Lyft, and Ford and Google might form a similar partnership. BMW also could show of a concept with a nearly production-ready solution early in 2016. Kia Motors introduces new 'DRIVE WISE' sub-brand for autonomous driving technologies - Kia 'DRIVE WISE' encompasses future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems - DRIVE WISE intelligent safety technologies exhibited at 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - U.S.