A camo-covered 2010 Kia Sorento has been spied again and fellows at BilNorge have just published some new spy photos of it at their BilNorge website.
The multitude of spy shots indicate that Kia is in the full process of testing the new generation Sorento and the number of Sorento spy photos that have popped up to the web lately, clearly tell us that the Korean automaker is getting closer to a final product.
Earlier this year we mentioned that new Sorento will make it’s official debut in Geneva Motor Show in 2009 and latest news coming from Kia Motors Europe are confirming the official Spring release.
Sorentos for the North American market will be built in Kia’s first US assembly plant, which is scheduled to start operating by the end of next year and will be capable of producing nearly 300,000 vehicles annually, when running at full capacity.
The exterior of the 2010 Kia Sorento will be completely redesigned and it will adopt many styling elements from KND-4 and KUE concepts. It will also get the brand-new Kia signature grille in the shape of a “tiger nose” grille recognized as a Kia signature.
Kia Sorento spy pictures
It’s still not known what gasoline engines the future Sorento will have under the hood, but we were confirmed that there will be a powerful 2,2L diesel with 200hp available.
Latest roumours also indicate that Sorento could get a diesel unit of lower displacement. The first engine that comes to my mind is the 2,0L unit packing a respectable 184 horsepower.
Both diesel engines were developed jointly by Hyundai and Kia and are believed to be the most powerful diesel engines among all similar ones currently available on the market. In the near future, both diesel units will find their way to many mid-sized (D-segment) and C-segment Kia and Hyundai vehicles. [Source: BilNorge]
Kia UAE has already announced that the new sorento will be launched here in Jun ’09. Forte will be called cerato here and will be launched in Feb ’09. and this XM looks great btw. nice ground clearance and the front facia looks very bold.
I definately love it. Schreyer, you have done it again!!
I don’t know about it’s design. I kind of liked the old boxy one and this one is a major deprture from it. I hope it grows on me once unmasked.
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When I was in Spain, I talked to that girl responsible for Kia Slovakia PR and she has seen the production version of 2010 Sorento without any camo. SHe said it was a stunner and that it looks aggressive and mean!
lucky her… any news when its hitting europe markets?
Should be in Geneva and then go on sale by Summer.
Going by the BilNorge article, only the North American Sorento’s will be built at the Georgia assembly plant. Is that the way you guys read it?? or will the US plant be making Sorento for the world market??
As far as the diesel engine goes for an off road vehicle horse-power, to a certain extent is irrelevant, it’s the low down torque you want out there, along with the bonus of great fuel economy.
Yeah, too bad the ground clearance sucks. If they gave it ground clearance, a REAL 4WD system, and the 2.2, I would be hitting the trail immediately! Yes, the ones in North America will only be made to North American specs. It would be too f**king hard for us dim-wits in the USA to convert anything from ASE to Metric!
Isn’t it amazing how with each redesign KIA vehicles are all adopting a “family look” while Hyundai’s still are all designed seemingly independent of the other (I-20/Elantra/Sonata/Genesis/Santa Fe).
I fear for the towing capacity… The current one has a towing capacity of up to 3500Kgs, the new one would only have 2200Kgs, which is hardly enough to tow a Horsevan, or decent boat, and I have never sold a Sorento without towing hook!
I have mixed emotions about this new Sorento. I like the look of it, but I don’t like that it has become somewhat a soft-roader. What made the current one so good was that you could actually take it off-roading and it would perform quite well.
Those Diesel engines appear to have some decent power to them, any word on what sort of Torque they will kick out?
Agree with you Mideivon! It’s nice to see Kias are getting a unique family look. And this is only the beginning you know.
Cars we see now (including Sorento XM) are adopting some of the design ideas that Peter Schreyer “invented”. All of the cars that we have seen so far were already under development when he joined Kia, so he could only affect on some design details. H-grille is one of them
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The first real Schreyer car is coming in 2009 or early 2010. That will be the Sportage and Optima/Magentis. Those two vehicles will be first Kias to be designed by Schreye’s team from ground up. And I just can’t wait to see both of them!!