Kia Reveals 'Imagine by Kia' Electric Car Concept at 2019 Geneva Motor Show

Kia revealed a conceptual electric crossover it calls "Imagine by Kia" at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, which the automaker said could determine the company's styling direction for its future electric vehicles.

Kia describes the concept as a "large C-segment" (compact) EV, with a floor-mounted battery capable of accepting inductive charging. As "Imagine by Kia" is more a design study than a technical demonstration, the vehicle says more about how Kias of tomorrow could look rather than how they could work.

Imagine by Kia is finished in six layers of hand-applied chrome paint, over top of which the same lands laid a finish of bronze tint. Its windshield blends seamlessly into the roof, both being made from a single pane of curved glass. Additional gratuitous use of glass can be found in the headlights, which look to be cast into blocks of glass and outlined by an LED strip that does a new take on Kia's "tiger nostrils."

"The inspiration for the 'tiger mask' was to create the look and feel of the headlamps being suspended within a transparent block of glass," said Gregory Guillaume, vice president of design for Kia Motors Europe. "This identifiable lighting signature could potentially be deployed as a unifying design element across Kia’s future electric vehicle range."

All four of the concept's radical 22-inch wheels feature inset acrylic panes, polished on their outer faces, and with a diamond cut on their inner faces, which create a dazzling light display as the wheels turn. All wear 255/35R22 Goodyear Intelligrip EV tires, which Kia says would communicate road conditions to the vehicle, improving the driving experience.

Inside, Kia gives a middle finger to the auto industry's trend toward the single biggest infotainment screen that can be fit to a vehicle and instead shatters said screen into 21 small fragments, installed as serrations across the dashboard. And yet, for all its exoticism, Imagine by Kia is reasonably practical: it has, in addition to a traditional trunk, a frunk located where the engine would normally be in a combustion-powered vehicle.