Styling & Design

Kia brings dynamic and dramatic design to the small MPV sector

New Kia Venga will offer consumers a winning combination of style and practicality when it goes on sale across Europe at the turn of this year. Bearing many of the striking design elements and detail touches that drew wide media and public acclaim to the No3 concept car at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, Venga brings a unique blend of sensational ‘good looks’ to a segment of the market previously characterised by ‘dull but worthy’ vehicles.

Indeed, the similarities between the No3 concept car and the production-ready Venga which made its debut at the Frankfurt Show in September go surprisingly deep. Apart from the adoption of a more conventional windscreen and roof design, all metal panels are common between the two models, and only minor changes have been made to turn the design concept into a production reality.

“B-segment MPVs have traditionally been a class of vehicle purchased out of necessity – they are cars of function and practicality,” explains Kia Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer. “Now all that is about to change. With New Venga we have designed a car that will fulfill European consumers’ practical requirements, while also being genuinely desirable and fun to drive. Venga is going to re-ignite interest among consumers in B-segment MPVs, by setting new standards for the class!”

Viewed from any direction, Venga appears to get progressively wider as the eye is drawn from top to bottom, thanks to the car’s long wheelbase and wide track – giving it a stable, purposeful, sporty stance. All of the car’s creases, shapes and outlines – from the sleek headlamp housings, through wedge-shaped double shoulder creases and deep swage lines on the doors, to the ‘kick-up’ rear passenger windows – get progressively higher as they flow from front to rear, making Venga appear poised and ready for action, even when parked.

Doing away with the boxy ‘mini-van’ profile typically associated with B-segment MPVs, New Venga adopts a sleeker, racier profile. Indeed, Venga’s slippery form achieves a class-best figure for aerodynamic drag with a Cd of just 0.31 – reducing fuel consumption, emissions output and wind noise – as well as satisfying numerous aesthetic criteria.

Short overhangs front and rear combine with the new model’s broad stance and its ‘smiling’ lower air intake to enhance the overall feeling of ‘eagerness’ to get moving. The bold, concave swage lines along the flanks accentuate Venga’s pronounced shoulder lines and muscular wheel arches, to give the car a svelte, but athletic appearance.

When New Venga is viewed in profile, the extended, four-panel glasshouse reaches beyond front and rear doors to improve driver visibility and to apparently ‘stretch’ the car’s outline. At both front and rear, modern, angular light clusters draw the viewers’ eyes sharply in towards the middle of the car.

The treatment of glass surfaces is especially important in the creation of Venga and buyers can accentuate this aspect of the MPV by specifying the optional, all-glass, two-piece sliding panoramic sunroof. It covers almost the entire roof area, bringing light to the interior to add to the feeling of spaciousness, and making the car seem sleeker by disguising the windscreen header rail and seeming to draw the roof line back.

Venga will be marketed exclusively in Europe with a choice of 10 exterior paint colours. Two of them – metallic Byte Blue and metallic Caramel Gold – are unique to the new model. Five other metallic colours (Mocha Brown, Indigo Blue, Champagne Silver, Continental Silver and Steel Gray), are joined by pearl Stone Black and two solid colours – Shine Red and Solid White.

Comparison of Kia vehicles / Exterior dimensions (mm)