GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Kia Sportspace is go
Sleek shooting brake concept an accurate preview of new Kia Optima – sedan and wagonKia's most senior designers have confirmed the company's Geneva low-slung Sportspace concept will enter production with virtually no exterior changes.
While the German-designed shooting brake concept will reach showrooms next year as the first Optima wagon, its front half is a 99 per cent accurate preview of the redesigned Optima sedan that goes on sale in Australia in October with turbo and hybrid power.
According to the chief designer of Kia's Frankfurt-based European Design Centre, Gregory Guillaume, when the new Optima sedan makes its world debut at the New York motor show next month, it will be virtually identical from the B-pillars forward.
The man who designed the Sportspace said some of the show car's exterior details will change, including its concealed door-handles, slimline wing mirrors and blacked-out grille and LED headlights.
Equally unsurprisingly, Guilliane confirmed the Sportspace's futuristic cabin was also just for show, including its four racy individual seats, T-bar gearshifter, huge colour touch screen displaying adjustable ride height settings, and carbon-fibre and milled, anodised aluminium components.
There's also a showy loading system comprising 28 rolling balls set within the matt leather cargo floor. When the show car's ignition is switched on, each of the stainless steel balls lowers into its recess by 3mm, helping to prevent cargo from sliding around on the move.
However, the Sportspace's exterior dimensions and surprisingly generous interior proportions will remain the same, meaning the mid-size wagon will offer seating for five while measuring 4855mm long, 1870mm wide and 1425mm high on the outside.
In comparison, that will make the first Optima wagon, which will ride on the same 2840mm wheelbase as the sedan when it arrives next year, about 45mm longer than the Mazda6 wagon, but 55mm lower and 30mm narrower.
"If we were to make an Optima wagon, which is an extremely important type of vehicle in Europe, it would look just like this," said Guillaume. "It's entirely production feasible.
"Looking at this car, it's not the type of show car that looks like it's not going to make it to a showroom. It looks like a very realistic proposal."
Kia design chief Peter Schreyer concurred, saying: "Estate cars are very popular, especially in Europe. I think the chances that you get that are quite good."
Kia says the Sportspace is neither a wagon nor a sedan, and neither a hatchback nor a shooting brake.
"We analysed what's going on and what we would do if we entered that market. The [Mercedes-Benz] E-Class [Estate] is the epitome of the wagon – boxy but good looking.
"The other extreme is the shooting brake. Ours is as low as a shooting brake and has the sportiness of a shooting brake, but the floor space of a traditional wagon."
Guillaume said Kia achieved this by creating a very large third window and adding a thick, back-swept D-pillar, which "showed the power of the rear and made it more like a stretched hatchback.
"Kia does not have a wagon in this important segment of the European market, but I was determined that we would not simply create something that conformed to tradition."
Locally, Kia Motors Australia communications manager Kevin Hepworth said the overwhelmingly positive reaction to first images of the Sportspace concept was almost certain to see a wagon version join the new Optima sedan on sale here by mid-2016.
As we've reported, the next-generation Optima sedan arrives Down Under in about six months with the choice of a four-cylinder petrol engine and, for the first time, a 180kW turbo-petrol engine like Hyundai's new Sonata, as well as a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain.
Kia also has a plug-in hybrid version of its new Optima ready for other markets and, if the Sportspace is any guide, a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain first seen in the Optima T-Hybrid concept.
As in the T-Hybrid, the Sportspace combines Hyundai-Kia's 1.7-litre turbo-diesel engine with a 48-volt electric 'booster', but in this case it drives all four wheels – although all production Optimas will be front-drive.
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