SEOUL: Kia will be showing off an Optima wagon and an Optima plug-in hybrid at the Geneva Motor Show.
The Optima Sportswagon is Kia’s first ever D-segment tourer, while its first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will receive its European premiere at the show. Both cars will go on sale across Europe in Q4 2016.
Inspired by the 2015 SPORTSPACE concept, the Optima Sportswagon offers the striking exterior design and high quality interior of the 2016 Optima saloon, with the added practicality and appeal of a tourer bodystyle.
The Optima Sportswagon will be available with a choice of petrol and diesel powertrains, including a high-powered GT model. It will be equipped with a range of safety assistance and infotainment features, ensuring maximum occupant safety, comfort and enjoyment.
A thoroughly practical vehicle for everyday use, the Optima Sportswagon promises to be among the most stylish cars in its class, with a long, lean and dynamic profile. The Sportswagon retains the same width (1,860 mm) and length (4,855 mm) as the saloon, and grows by 5 mm in height (to 1,470 mm) to accommodate the expanded boot.
The additional cargo space resulting from the tourer bodystyle makes the Optima Sportswagon one of the most practical cars in its class, with 553 litres (VDA) of cargo space behind the second row of seats – 48 litres more than the Optima saloon.
A series of highly ergonomic features in the boot render the car more practical than many other D-segment tourers. These include a safety barrier net built in to the back of the rear seats and pop-up sliding luggage rails to secure individual items which are likely to slide or roll around the boot. A low, flat boot lip, and a Smart Power Tailgate – which opens the boot automatically when the Optima’s smart key is located in close proximity to the rear tailgate – enables owners to load heavy items easily.
Highly-versatile 40:20:40 split-folding rear seats are fitted as standard, enabling owners to slide longer outdoor equipment – such as skis or snowboards – through the central seat, while two rear passengers can still sit in comfort.
The new Optima Sportswagon features the same sharp lines and smooth bodywork that has come to define the latest Kia models. While the front of the car remains the same as the Optima saloon, its strong, rising shoulder and gently sloping, swept-back cabin continue for longer to produce its distinctive tourer body shape.
The overhang at the rear adds greater visual volume to the back of the vehicle, though this extra mass is disguised elegantly by the raked rear window and tapering roofline, giving the Sportswagon a genuinely athletic stance in a typically conservative segment.
At the rear of the car, wide LED tail lamps wrap around the corners of the bodywork. The rear bumper houses a single oval exhaust and features an integrated air diffuser, for a sporty finish.
The Optima Sportswagon will be available in Europe in a choice of nine paint colours, and will ride on alloy wheels ranging from 16- to 18-inches in diameter.
The Optima Sportswagon offers a premium-quality, driver-focused interior, with features and technologies typically associated with vehicles from the class above.
The wide dashboard, designed along a horizontal plane, helps to create a genuine sense of spaciousness and modernity, with the same high material quality and design that characterises the interior of the Optima saloon. For a quality ambience, the cabin is finished with a high proportion of soft-touch materials, cloth and leather trim in natural tones, and tasteful metallic accents. High levels of soundproofing reduce driver fatigue during long journeys and when travelling over broken surfaces.
The new Sportswagon is available with a choice of single- or two-tone colour interior schemes: single-tone (black) or two-tone (dark grey with light grey) in cloth or leather trim. The console is finished in gloss black and chrome.
The same technologies that make the Optima saloon one of the most innovative cars in the D-segment are featured in the Optima Sportswagon – a range of on-board technologies to improve usability, comfort and convenience.
The Optima Sportswagon is equipped with Kia’s latest audio-visual navigation (AVN) system, available with 7.0- or 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment – the latter when specified with the satellite navigation system. DAB digital radio, which is available across a number of European markets, is fully supported with Kia’s AVN.
The Optima Sportswagon will additionally be among first Kia models to feature Android Auto, designed to work with Android phones running 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher, and Apple CarPlay for iPhone 5 or newer. Both systems feature voice control and allow the driver to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road ahead at all times.
Depending on market, other available features will include: 360-degree Around View Monitor, with four cameras helping the driver to manoeuvre when parking by displaying a birds-eye view of the Optima Sportswagon on the touchscreen; Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS), which parks the car automatically in parallel and perpendicular spaces and helps drivers safely leave a parking space; and Dynamic Bending Headlamps, which sweep the road ahead in line with the steering wheel for greater visibility and improved safety at night.
Going green
The plug-in hybrid will be a key addition to Kia’s D-segment Optima line-up, as well as the company’s expanding portfolio of low-emission vehicles.
It boasts greater battery capacity and pure electric range than earlier Optima Hybrid models, enabling drivers to travel up to 53km in zero-emissions electric-only mode before the 2.0-litre GDI (gasoline direct injection) engine is required to provide propulsion. Kia’s development teams are targeting combined CO2 emissions of 37 g/km, which will ensure a low total cost of ownership for private and fleet buyers alike.
The last-generation Kia Optima is credited with starting the brand’s design-led transformation when it was launched globally in 2010. The all-new Optima marks the next stage in this transformation, with the new Plug-in hybrid model featuring a series of visual enhancements. These changes differentiate the model from other Optima models powered by conventional internal combustion powertrains, and also improve aerodynamic efficiency.
Reprofiled front and rear bumpers enable more efficient air-flow over the body of the car, thanks to a more aerodynamically efficient design.
Also distinguishing the Optima plug-in hybrid is special chrome trim with a clean metallic blue finish, for the rear bumper, grille surround and wheel arches, as well as special ‘EcoPlugin’ badging. The charging port is integrated into the driver-side front wing.
Inside, the Optima plug-in hybrid features a series of enhancements to reflect the innovative nature of the car and its powertrain. A new driver instrument cluster displays key information about the Plug-in hybrid powertrain – such as the battery’s state of charge – as well as details on driving style, highlighting where a driver can drive more efficiently.
The all-new Optima Plug-in hybrid comes equipped with a series of intuitive driver assistance technologies, maximising safety and further contributing to efficient engine performance.
The car is powered by a 9.8 kWh lithium-polymer battery pack paired with a 50 kW electric motor, allowing it to operate in pure-electric mode for up to 53km at speeds as high as 120kph, placing the Optima Plug-in hybrid among the leaders in the D-segment for pure-electric range.
The powertrain employs Kia’s efficient 2.0-litre ‘Nu’ four-cylinder GDI engine, which on its own generates 154hp and 189Nm. The engine is coupled with the electric motor, which allows the car to operate in charge-sustaining mode once the battery runs out of charge. The powertrain’s total power output is 202hp at 6,000 rpm, with the application of the electric motor facilitating immediate engine response to throttle inputs. With the addition of electric power, the plug-in hybrid’s total torque output is a high 375Nm from just 2,300 rpm.
Power is applied to the road through a six-speed automatic gearbox, with the transmission-mounted 50 kW electric motor that is used to power the Optima plug-in hybrid replacing the traditional torque converter.
The Optima plug-in hybrid’s next-generation battery system features a 9.8 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery pack, which produces significantlymore energy output than the battery pack found in the outgoing Optima’s hybrid system. Its simplicity enables compact packaging on the front axle, and a straightforward provision of electric and petrol power to the driven front wheels with minimal energy transfer and conversion losses.
The Optima plug-in hybrid will accelerate from 0-to-100 kph in 9.4 seconds, 0.6 seconds faster than the previous-generation parallel hybrid, the Optima Hybrid.
The Optima Plug-in hybrid is expected to deliver carbon dioxide emissions of 37 g/km (combined, New European Driving Cycle).
In spite of the space taken up by the high-capacity battery pack, the Optima Plug-in hybrid is packaged in such a way to allow a 307-litre (VDA) cargo capacity, with the new battery pack hidden behind the rear seat and in the tyre well. The addition of the plug-in powertrain means engineers have been able to fit a smaller fuel tank than the outgoing Optima Hybrid, with capacity reduced from 65 to 55 litres.
It will hit European showrooms later this year, offering the company’s unique 7-year, 160,000km warranty as standard. The car will be built at Kia’s plant in Hwasung, South Korea.
Keyword: Kia Optima wagon and plug-in hybrid head to Geneva