2024 Kia Picanto unveiled with new look, due in Australia this year

The facelifted 2024 Kia Picanto city hatch has been unveiled ahead of Australian showroom arrivals by the end of this year.

The smallest car in Kia Australia showrooms has received an imposing new look inspired by the EV9 seven-seat electric SUV, plus new technology and upgraded advanced safety features.

Kia Australia has confirmed local showroom arrivals from the fourth quarter of this year (October to December), with a longer list of advanced safety equipment – beyond the autonomous emergency braking standard on today's Picanto.

Prices are expected to rise as a result, and may push beyond $20,000 drive-away for the cheapest model – one of two new cars left below this threshold – for the first time.

UPDATE, 4 July 2023, 4:20pm: More details of the Kia Picanto update have been published in Europe. We have updated this story (published 12:30pm) accordingly and brought it forward.

In South Korea, the updated model is 7 to 8 per cent dearer than its predecessor.

In Australia, this would translate to prices from $20,200 to $23,000 drive-away – up from $18,890 to $21,390 drive-away today, excluding the GT turbo model, which will be axed for the facelifted Picanto range.

This is the second facelift for the current-generation Kia Picanto – which launched in 2017 and received its first update in 2020 – and is intended to extend its life beyond the middle of this decade, when it can be replaced by an electric car in its biggest market, Europe.

Details of the updated Picanto have been released by Kia in South Korea – where it is sold as the Morning – and Europe.

The updated 2024 Picanto introduces a new front fascia inspired by the EV9, with vertically-oriented headlights that use LED technology for the main beams for the first time – in addition to carry-over LED daytime-running lights.

There is a bolder grille with chrome highlights and a bar connecting the headlights. Picanto GT-Line variants adopt a sportier appearance inspired by the EV9 GT-Line's front fascia.

At the rear there are new tail-lights that now connect across the rear with an LED bar – similar to the EV9 and latest Seltos small SUV – plus a restyled lower bumper.

There are also new 16-inch wheels with machined highlights on top-of-the range models – with cheaper versions offering 14-inch steel wheels with hubcaps, or 15-inch alloys – and two new exterior colours in South Korea (Adventurers Green and Signal Red).

Inside, changes focus on a new instrument cluster layout, which replaces the two analogue dials with two digitised speed and tachometer readouts, on either side of the 4.2-inch driver display.

The 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and a reversing camera remains, but the system scores smarter embedded satellite navigation in overseas markets (not currently available in Australian cars), and over-the-air downloadable software updates.

The USB ports have been updated to the latest USB-C sockets, and South Korean models can now be specified with a remote start feature.

Buyers in Kia's home market can now choose brown or dark green leather-look seat trim, instead of black.

Safety has seen a big upgrade, with a longer list of features in South Korea that now approaches Kia's larger, new-generation vehicles.

As previously reported by Drive, Kia intends to submit the Picanto for re-testing by independent safety organisation ANCAP, as the current model's score from 2017 is due to expire at the end of this year.

However – under more stringent safety test criteria today – it is unclear if the Picanto will be able to match or exceed the four stars it earned when the current car was crash-tested six years ago.

Kia Europe says the "Picanto's body has been strengthened with additional front sub-frame and B-pillar hot stamping" to "increase the structural stiffness of the vehicle" – which may assist its crash performance under newer safety standards.

There are seven airbags overseas, but none are believed to be a front-centre airbag – which has been used by other similarly-sized city cars to pass a strict new 'far-side impact' crash test, which measures how far the driver moves towards the front passenger in a severe side impact on the passenger side of the car.

New for the updated Picanto in South Korea is an expanded autonomous emergency braking system that can now detect cyclists and prevent collisions in intersections – plus adaptive cruise control technology, and auto-dipping high beams.

It is in addition to lane-keep assist, lane centring assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition and leading vehicle departure alert features standard on the current model in overseas markets.

The only advanced safety feature currently fitted to the Kia Picanto in Australia is autonomous emergency braking, with car-to-car detection only.

It is unclear how many of these advanced safety systems will come to Australia for the updated model, however Kia has confirmed not all will be standard across the range.

The Picanto GT – with a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission – will be culled from the model range globally due to low demand here and overseas.

The sole engine would then become a 1.25-litre non-turbo petrol four-cylinder mated to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.

In Europe the automatic version of this engine uses a five-speed automated-manual transmission (AMT) – which operates behind-the-scenes like a manual gearbox, but has no clutch and a shift lever like an automatic – but this is unlikely to come to Australia.

The 2024 Kia Picanto is due in South Korean showrooms this month, ahead of Australian arrivals due later this year.