This pint-sized Optima lookalike is the new Kia K2 and it will make its world premiere at this week’s 2011 Shanghai Motor Show. It is the China market version of the upcoming Rio Sedan that will be revealed at the New York Auto Show on Wednesday. However, it remains to be seen if the two models will share the same look as Kia said the K2 was designed and engineered specifically for the Chinese market.
Even though the sub-compact sedan shares the same technical underpinnings as the all-new Rio hatchback that debuted at the Geneva Salon in March, the K2 has features a bespoke design drawing on styling cues from the K5 sedan, which we know as the new Optima.
The South Korean automaker’s small sedan measures 4,370mm in length, 1,700mm in width and 1,460mm in height, and is longer, wider and lower than the previous generation Rio. It wheelbase is 2,570 mm long. According to Kia, the K2 boasts a luggage capacity of 500 liters.
Kia’s newcomer will be available to Chinese buyers in six trim levels with either a 1.4-litre or 1.6-litre Gamma petrol engine mated to manual or automatic transmissions.
The K2 will enter production at Dongfeng Yueda Kia’s manufacturing facility in Jiangsu province in China starting this June.
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