Kia Australia says the pint-sized Picanto city car isn’t going anywhere, with the brand’s local product boss committing to the budget hatchback for years to come.
Speaking with CarExpert, general manager for product planning at Kia Australia, Roland Rivero, said the local arm won’t follow its New Zealand colleagues in ditching the brand’s smallest model, reiterating its vital role in the Australian lineup.
“Picanto will be with us for many years yet. That’s as much as I can say,” Mr Rivero said. “We love Picanto. It’s great for our brand, it’s a great entry point into Kia here in Australia.”
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“Are we going to do things under NVES? I think every powertrain, every car we’re looking at from an NVES perspective, and that’s always going to be an ongoing situation. If we need to look at how we can lower our carbon footprint, we’ll look at ways to do that together with [Kia Global].
“But at the moment, Picanto is doing extremely well, and we’re never going to want to delete that product, because there’s a strong, strong demand for it here in Australia,” Mr Rivero added.
Kia basically owns the Australian micro car segment in Australia, commanding a 94.6 per cent market share of the segment in 2025, with the Abarth/Fiat 500 accounting for the rest.
Extend that to include VFACTS’ light passenger car segment as well, and the Picanto was only second to the MG 3 (7166 v 8350 units) last year. The Picanto also posted 23.1 per cent growth for the calendar year.
The Kia Picanto remains one of Australia’s cheapest new cars, priced from $19,190 plus on-road costs or $22,140 drive-away. Only the base MG 3 is cheaper, currently advertised from $21,888 drive-away at the time of writing.
It retains both manual and automatic transmission options, and in Australia the Picanto is offered in base Sport as well as premium GT-Line trim levels – taking the total variant count to four.
Mr Rivero’s comments around NVES and emissions are also interesting, given the Picanto’s limited powertrain offerings in other markets. Over in Europe and the UK, the Picanto has migrated to a Euro 6d-certified 1.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine with direct injection, quoting outputs of 68bhp (50kW) and 96Nm – compared to the 62kW/122Nm 1.25-litre atmo four-cylinder engine with multi-point fuel injection in Australian models.
The four-cylinder Picanto in Australia manages a claimed 4.6-5.1L/100km in ADR testing, with CO2 emissions rated at 125-140g/km on the combined cycle. UK specs show the 1.0 GDi achieves 52.3-48.7mpg (5.4L-5.8L/100km) on the stricter WLTP cycle.
Emissions, meanwhile, are quoted at a more favourable 122-132g/km depending on variant, again against the more stringent WLTP regime – the metric more relevant to NVES. Kia is also prepping an even more efficient 1.0 DPi powertrain with 62bhp (46kW) in preparation for new Euro 7 regulations.
In July last year, Kia Motors president and CEO Ho Sung Song told Britain’s Autocar the Korean carmaker is currently “studying and developing” a cheap city-sized ‘EV1’ electric vehicle, given the Picanto’s ongoing popularity across the globe. Kia technically already offers a city-sized EV – the Picanto-based Ray – but this tall, boxy model is exclusive to Korea.
However it could be a number of years before Kia launches such a product, and shifts in electrification and emissions legislation overseas could mean combustion power could be around in cars like the Picanto for a while longer.
