Kia Motors has revealed its new all-electric concept car, ‘Imagine by Kia’, at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show, and it's quite handsome.
Coherently drawing together elements of a muscular sports utility vehicle, a sleek and athletic family saloon, and a versatile and spacious crossover, the company says the Imagine is intentionally designed to not sit within the industry’s predefined vehicle categories.
"Automotive design is about capturing the heart and making it beat that bit faster for that bit longer. We believe that there’s absolutely no reason why that should change simply because the car is electric,” says Gregory Guillaume, Vice President of Design for Kia Motors Europe. “That’s why our all-electric concept is designed to not only get your pulse racing, but to also signpost our holistic and emotional approach to electrification.:
The concept is KIA's first pure electric four-door passenger car. The Imagine is underpinned by a low-mounted, induction-charged battery pack that powers a compact drivetrain.
Reinterpreting Kia’s iconic ‘tiger nose’ grille, Imagine features a bold new illuminated ‘tiger mask’ that encircles the main LED headlamp units. Separated by horizontal ‘eyelids’, the dipped and main beam units are housed with a single block of clear acrylic glass, creating the effect of piercing eyes floating free of visible support.
The look is "striking" says KIA, but one has to be cautious about analogies to eyes, eyebrows and eyelids on headlamps, as Chrysler's infamous, unintentionally
hilarious ads for the 2011 200 illustrated.
One could easily also compare them less charitably to a raccoon's "mask," although the look is undeniably handsome, and instantly recognizable, much like the headlights of a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang, or the menacing tail lamps of a late model Dodge Durango.
From the side, the curvature of the vehicle really is striking, most noticeable, the huge C-pillar, which surely will be either reduced in a production model, because it greatly reduces visibility, even while it looks amazing. But the gently sloping windscreen, sharply bending roofline and long rear window give the car a rakish, masculine shape. A single pane of glass covers the windscreen and the roof, which may or may not survive into production (surely it's expensive.)
There's a shoulder-line crease running along the entire length of both sides of the car, continued in the rear with horizontal tail lamps, which are housed within deep-set tunnels to create a three-dimensional effect, with the looped lights extending outwards as they grow in size.
A single sheet of glass is used for both the windscreen and roof, flowing from the base of the A-pillar and over the cabin to create a vast sky-window, before tapering into a double-bubble over the rear passenger compartment.
The front turn signals, located high up on the sharp-edged hood, feature illuminated glowing elements that appear to float in fins of clear acrylic glass.
In a world of look-alike SUVs, the rear of this vehicle alone will make it stand out. A symphony of curved glass and sheetmetal, tail lights that look inspiring, and an intended roofline that seems to be being hugged by the C-Pillars, there's no way to mistake it for any other vehicle.
Let's hope SOME of this makes it past the bean-counters and to the streets.
INTERIOR DASH JOKE
Showing that car designers have a keen, even wicked, sense of humor (one hopes!) 21 individual ultra high-resolution screens curve their synchronized way across the top of the dashboard in a layout that is (says KIA) "at the same time both casual and coordinated." According to Ralph Kluge, Kia Motors Europe’s general manager of interior design, "These 21 incredibly thin screens are a humorous and irreverent riposte to the on-going competition between some automotive manufacturers to see who can produce the car with the biggest screen."
