Kia POP EV may hint at forthcoming models

Peter Schreyer, head of automotive design at Kia said the POP EV concept could offer design cues for forthcoming models.

While the city-car wasn’t produced to preview any future models, Schreyer believes that some of its design may evolve for Kia’s production cars.

“There were two proposals. The other one was more conventional or realistic, but we went for the different one. The management said, ‘Are you sure?’ But when they saw it, everyone loved it.”

The Pop is a 3m city-car. While it’s a smidge longer than the Toyota iQ, it’s half a metre shorter than the outgoing Picanto.

Powered by a 67bhp electric motor, which produces 150Nm of torque, it draws its energy from an innovative lithium polymer gel battery made by LG Chem. This gives the same performance as standard lithium ion batteries but with significantly lower weight and development cost.