Hyundai Motor’s head of powertrain development, Jurgen Grimm, teased that a new breed of Kia Rio is in development and it will feature the ‘N’ moniker. The N is a special entity that is looking to boost the Rio with more power than ever.
In detail, Jurgen revealed that the Rio is going to come equipped with a 1.6L Turbocharged motor that will offer 250hp and 186kW as N wishes to turn the i20-powered Rio to a street-legal car.
Jurgen also said that the Rio is not far away from completion. He claims that the powertrain is already ready to be installed on the upcoming model. All that is left is for the designers to produce something exceptional that will appeal to the hatchback junkies worldwide.
If this is to come true, then the Rio will be much more powerful than the award-winning Ford Fiesta ST. The benchmark is currently with the latter as it managed to offer a whopping 147kW of torque from a 1L Ecoboost engine.
We can expect the next-generation Rio to come with 6-speed manual or 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. The car was already unveiled at the Paris Motor Show last month and we can look forward to its debut in Q1 next year.
