The Facelifted Kia Sonet Has Made Its Spy Shot Debut In South Korea

• Facelifted Kia Sonet spotted with major styling revisions. 
• Gets heavily revised front and rear end with styling cues from updated Seltos.
• Likely feature additions include digitized driver’s display, semi-powered front seats and certain ADAS systems.
• No changes are expected to be made underneath the hood. 
• Expected to launch in India around early 2024. 

It looks like Kia is working on bringing a major midlife update for its subcompact SUV, the Sonet. The facelifted version of the popular sub-four metre SUV has been spotted testing for the first time in South Korea. This will be the first major revision for the SUV, which has been on sale in India since September 2020. 

Starting with the design, the facelifted Kia Sonet gets sharper styling touches, keeping in line with the carmaker’s latest design language. Even though it’s draped in heavy camouflage, it seems to get a snazzier set of headlamps that flank a revised grille. Save for the revised alloys as seen in the test mule, no other changes are expected to be made to the side profile. 

Once again, at the rear end, there are extensive changes in the form of vertically stacked tail lamps (a la the facelifted Seltos), connected by a red strip that could be illuminated this time around. Both the front and rear bumpers are expected to have minor changes to gel along with this design. 

The interior is yet to be seen, but the Sonet could get feature additions in the form of a digitised driver’s display, a semi-powered front seat and probably some ADAS features as well. Other features such as a sunroof, a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment with smartphone connectivity and climate control should be retained. 

On the safety front, it should continue with up to six airbags, electronic stability control, parking sensors, a rear-view camera and tyre pressure monitoring system. 

When the facelifted Sonet comes to India, we don’t expect any changes to be made underneath the hood. So it should continue with its existing 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol, 1-litre turbo-petrol, and a 1.5-litre diesel engine. Specifications of all three engines have been detailed below:

Kia is expected to launch the facelifted Sonet in India in early 2024 and we expect it to command a premium over the current model that starts at Rs 7.79 lakh (ex-showroom). It will renew its rivalry with the Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Mahindra XUV300 and Nissan Magnite.