Two weeks ago we saw some first spy shots of the upcoming revised 2021 Kia Sorento SUV, but now the automaker has released some official images that provide a fairly full picture of what the model will look like when it gets its big premiere at the upcoming Geneva auto show, including the interior.
Those inside images in particular do much to convince us that the staid beigeness of the outgoing Sorento is a thing of the past. While there’s an unmistakable hint of retro-ness to the design of the interior, particularly as regards the long horizontal and relatively uninterrupted line of the dashboard. You almost expect to find an ignition key hole – but no, what you see is a push-button, a reminder this is a modern design through and through.
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Most prominent are the four roughly rectangular air vents, two of which bookend the climate control commands in the centre of the console, and two of which are found at the extremities of the front row, with rectangular door handles to keep them company.
The images also show a nifty black-and-tan interior colour scheme (slightly retro in its own right), set off by the two-tone steering wheel and contrasting stitching on the perforated seats.
In a sign of how quickly new technologies and features are making their way from luxury early adopters to mass-market vehicles these days, the new Sorento gets a massive 12.3-inch instrument cluster screen in front the driver and a 10.3-inch infotainment screen that sort of bleed one into the other. We first saw this in a Mercedes-Benz S-Class in 2014, so just six short years ago.
Also notable is the ambient lighting visible on the passenger-side dash and on the doors, and the two rotary nobs down on the lower part of the armrest, in easy reach of the driver. One is for changing gears, while the other looks to be there for switching drive modes.
Outside, meanwhile, we’d gotten a more expansive view with the earlier spy shots, but one thing that’s striking here is how much the front end hews closely to the one seen on the brand-new Seltos SUV, lower down the model range. The biggest difference seems to involve the placement of the Kia logo; here it’s placed in front, in the Seltos it’s on the hood.
The new 2021 Kia Sorento is expected to be available for purchase before the end of the year. Stay tuned for the Geneva auto show for more details on the model, including of course what makes it go.
