The Kia Rio is a lightweight automobile section stalwart in Australia, however it would quickly be retiring domestically.
“The following (seventh) era Rio won’t be produced in [right-hand drive],” Kia Australia at present mentioned in a press release, after studies confirmed the present automobile wouldn’t get replaced within the UK and mainland Europe.
“The award-winning Rio has been an incredible automobile for Kia within the Australian market with 162,494 offered since its debut in mid-2000.”
“Whereas the Rio nameplate won’t proceed domestically, Kia does proceed to supply its widespread Picanto and Cerato ranges, with new fashions throughout varied segments presently beneath research for our market.”
There’s no agency finish date for the Korean-produced Rio, although it’s possible the all-new mannequin shall be revealed sooner or later later this 12 months, given the present iteration first went into manufacturing late in 2016.
Regardless of nonetheless being a stable vendor, the Rio has fallen behind varied light-segment opponents of late.
In 2022 the Rio returned 4576 registrations in Australia, down 18.9 per cent on 2021’s 5644 items. Additional, it was outpaced by the MG 3 (16,168), the now-defunct Suzuki Baleno (6124), and Mazda 2 (5146).
We’ve began to see different producers pull out of this section each domestically and overseas, with the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Honda Jazz and Hyundai i20 now not provided.
Solely the i20 N is presently on sale now the Fiesta ST has been axed, though robust demand has compelled Hyundai to pause ordering.
The Rio isn’t even offered in Korea anymore, although in equity neither is the associated Stonic crossover which additionally bridges the hole between the Picanto (Morning) and Cerato (K3) in measurement.
In response to British studies, the Stonic will proceed on as a stand-in for the Rio in addition to competing within the sub-compact crossover class. We count on the identical for Australia for the foreseeable future.
As for the “new fashions throughout varied segments presently beneath research for our market”, it’s unclear whether or not Kia plans to switch the Rio straight as a part of these future product evaluations.
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