A few weeks ago, Kia Philippines released a teaser regarding a new model that will be coming in June 2024. At the time, the company didn’t mention anything yet, so it was a bit of a guessing game in figuring it out.
We reckoned it was the subcompact model, the Sonet. The very little visual cues in the teaser has led us to believe that. Safe to say our hunch was right.
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It’s official folks, the Kia Sonet is coming to the Philippines. It’s about time too, we say, given that the Toyota Raize could do with some serious competition here. Not only that, the company is also opening up the reservation books for it.
There are no details just yet, so features and specs for the Philippine model are still up in the air. What is confirmed is that we’re getting the new look that made its world premiere in December 2023. It’s unknown if the Sonet will succeed the Stonic as the least expensive crossover in the range, but the latter is still present in the local website at the time of writing.
How much will it be, you ask? The 2024 Kia Sonet will start at around P770,000. It’s a good match against the Toyota Raize that carries a base price of P751,000 for the E MT. That said, variants are unknown at this point, but it’s likely that there will be a several trim levels available.
Which country will the Philippine-spec Sonet come from? Presently, there are three likely candidates. The first one is India, the biggest market for the subcompact crossover. Another one would be China where it was recently introduced. However, Vietnam might be a good bet given the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.
For powertrains, there are several possible options. There’s a 1.2-liter, four-cylinder with 82hp and 115Nm of torque, along with a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder turbo making 120hp and 172Nm of torque. A 1.5-liter non-turbo gas engine is offered in China and Vietnam, and that one makes 113hp and 144Nm of torque. There’s a turbodiesel in select markets, but it seems unlikely for the Philippines.
All will be revealed in June 2024 and it will be interesting to see how the local version is specified. Watch this space.
