The versatility to seat seven passengers and decent ground height—tick these two boxes, and your vehicle at least has a shot at making it in the Philippine market. With that in mind, we think Kia Philippines should seriously consider bringing in the next-generation Carens.
Revealed for the Indian market, the all-new Carens is a three-row “recreational vehicle” (though, quite frankly, this is clearly something along the lines of the Honda BR-V) with seven seats and respectable ride height.
The brand doesn’t reveal this thing’s exact ground clearance, but considering the images seen here and the fact that it’s built for the Indian setting, it should do fine within our borders.
No engine details yet, but Kia has shared that you can get this model with either a seven-speed dual-clutch or a six-speed automatic transmission. The entire lineup comes with six airbags as standard, and you can equip units with modern niceties like a 10.25-inch touchscreen paired with an eight-speaker Bose sound setup, a sunroof, and a 64-color ambient lighting system.
Kia has nailed the design here as well. The overall look is clean and features sharp design elements when it comes to its character lines, roofline, and lighting. And speaking of lights, the all-new Carens features what Kia calls ‘Star Map’ daytime running lights. The 16-inch dual-tone alloy wheels look rather neat, too.
The interior gets a nice mix of light and dark treatments, as well as a digital instrument cluster and modern-looking seats. There’s a considerable amount of what appears to be faux metal trim and some very angular design choices on the door panels.
No price yet as of this writing. Regardless, the all-new Carens looks like a very promising new vehicle. Do you agree that this would fare well on local roads, or are there enough seven-seat subcompact SUVs available in the Philippines already? Chime in.
