Kia Ray facelifted again

It could well be that you do not know the Kia Ray and that has a clear reason: Kia only sells it in its home country South Korea. Why then do we pay any attention to it? Well, simply because it’s nice to occasionally see what Kia and sister brand Hyundai are doing in the home country. For example, last year we were introduced to the mischievous Hyundai Casper. A car that according to some of you should also come to Europe. The Kia Ray has also been positively responded to. Now the small town rascal is getting a facelift.

Kia is relatively thorough to make the Ray up to date again. The nose, introduced in 2017, goes in the trash and the Ray gets a contemporary front in return. All-new, lower-deep headlamps, a deeper-cut ‘tiger nose’ grille and completely different bumper work. At the rear, the facelift is no less drastic, because here too we see new lights, which not only have a different shape, but now also have a sleek LED light signature. They are optically connected by two ‘gullies’ in the body, so that the part in which the number plate is located seems to float above the tailgate. In the interior, a larger 4.2-inch LCD screen is particularly striking, with physical buttons only on the left.

Kia Ray

Technically, things seem to remain the same. That means that the Ray always has a 1.0 three-cylinder petrol engine in its nose. Incidentally, in the past there was also an electrically powered Ray, which was simply called Ray EV. It had a 67-hp electric motor with a 16.4-kWh battery pack, good for a range of 138 km. A true pioneer, because the Ray EV was Kia’s first electric car. The Ray EV just doesn’t seem to be returning.

Would the Kia Ray also have a chance here in Europe, or do you think that this 3.6 m long urban rascal, specially developed for the Korean market, should remain there?