This is the Kia K3: Kia’s latest compact hatchback

Prepare yourself for an almost inimitable piece about model names. To keep things as clear as possible, we’ll quickly get through Kia’s ‘K3 chaos’. In August, Kia conjured up a new K3. That car was presented as a sedan, but would later also have a hatchback version. That Kia K3 Hatchback is the car that plays the leading role in this article, but that K3 is not the only K3 that Kia has in its international portfolio.

Kia K3 Hatchback

Here we go. Kia has been selling a K3 for years in its home country of South Korea, but also in various Asian countries. A variant of this is called ‘Forte’ in the United States and is known as Cerato in other markets. The Kia K3 also exists in China and is supplied there by Kia’s joint venture Dongfeng Yueda Kia. The Chinese K3 was recently facelifted and has since had a front that differs from the other versions. The brand new Kia K3 Sedan that we recently wrote about and the new hatchback version that is in the spotlight in this article have so far only been presented for the Mexican market, but will probably also be shipped to other countries.

The previously presented new Kia K3 Sedan.

Will this Kia K3 by definition be the successor to all the K3s mentioned above? That is not entirely clear. In Mexico – and also in the United States – Kia has the ‘international K3’ brotherly in the showrooms next to the Rio Hatchback and Rio Sedan. Indeed, the Rio is also sold in our corner of the world as a five-door and tailored to the European market. So don’t confuse that Rio with this now defunct Rio X, which has very little to do with it.

Kia K3 inside.

In any case, the new K3 (Sedan and Hatchback) will act as the successor to the two Rios in Mexico, but it is not yet entirely clear how the existing K3 will continue to exist. It is not inconceivable that those cars will be renamed K4. With its car length of 4.54, the ‘new K3 Sedan’ is approximately 15 centimeters longer than the Rio Sedan it replaces, but is approximately 10 centimeters shorter than the existing four-door version of the K3. In turn, this new Kia K3 Hatchback, with its length of 4.3 meters, is about 20 centimeters longer than ‘our’ and therefore also the international Kia Rio, but also about 20 centimeters shorter than the ‘existing’ K3 Hatchback . So they can coexist perfectly. With 390 liters, the new K3 Hatchback swallows considerably less than its brand new sedan brother. In Mexico, the new compact K3s will in any case be available with a 120 hp 1.6 and a 150 hp 2.0.