Benang Geneva Motor Show: Kia Provo

Fiat Kia

Kia has unveiled the Provo, a Rio-based concept inspired by road car-based budget competition cars from Fiat, Alfa and Innocenti. This is the Kia Provo, a Mini-rivalling 'urban racer' concept for the Geneva motor show.
Based on a shortened Kia Rio platform, the four-wheel-drive hatchback is just 3. 88m long and 1. 35m tall and has a strictly 2+2 cabin layout. It was created by Kia's Frankfurt-based design team, led by chief designer Gregory Guillaume, who reports to Hyundai-Kia design supremo Peter Schreyer.
Guillaume describes the Provo as entirely a car for European tastes and conditions - an emotional and muscular car aimed at delivering pure fun and performance for today's city-based enthusiast driver.
The Provo has frameless doors, a wrap-around windscreen, dramatic bumperINSERTs and 19-inch milled aluminium wheels.
Kia designers say they were inspired by road car-based budget competition machines such as the Fiat 500 Abarth, Alfa GT Junior and obscurities such as the Innocenti Mini De Tomaso.
The interior dispenses with a conventional centre console to make the enclosed cockpit feel more spacious. A neat aluminium mount holds the transmission selector and starter button, and the driver uses column-mounted paddle shifters. The instruments and climate controls are animated on LCD screens.
Kia's designers have also taken inspiration from 1950s race cars, using a quilted leather covering across the seats and centre tunnel.
Powering the car's front wheels is a 201bhp 1. 6-litre turbo petrol engine, which drives through a seven-speed DSG 'box. The rear axle is driven by a 44bhp electric motor.