Kia has been around for 80 years! It’s kind of hard to believe, but the brand began as a manufacturer of bicycle parts and is much more than that today.
The celebration of 80 years of business has a huge buzz going. Kia isn’t only celebrating its success in Korea but is also being celebrated with a special Kia model in the UK. The vehicle is a retromod version of the first Kia vehicle every brought from South Korea to the British market: The Kia Pride.
Let’s take a look at this new retromod vehicle from a bygone era.
What’s the story of the Pride?
The Pride was first produced in 1987 and was a rebadged version of the Ford Festiva that was built in Korea. This little car wasn’t sold in Europe originally, but eventually made its way to the UK in 1991. The version that arrived gave drivers the option of either a 1.1-liter or 1.3-liter engine with four cylinders. The smaller engine made 51 horsepower, while the larger model produced 60 ponies for the drive. Eventually, these engines were replaced by a 1.3-liter engine that was fuel-injected and improved to 63 horsepower in 1994.
A new Pride is on the prowl
The new celebratory vehicle is a different form of the Kia Pride. It has something the original model never would have included: an electric powertrain. The new Pride EV is a restomod, which means the gas-powered system has been tossed aside for a fully electric drivetrain. The company responsible for this is Electrogenic, a British EV conversion specialist company. The electrified Pride can complete a sprint to 60 mph in less than 8.0 seconds, which is much better than the 11.8 seconds it took the gas-powered versions to reach the same speed.
How much power does this EV have?
If you have the new Pride EV in sport mode it produces 107 horsepower and 173 lb-ft of torque. This isn’t much power at all by today’s standards, but it is enough to get this little EV moving. If you drive in the eco mode, which is the default setting, the powertrain only produces 60 horsepower while the auto mode split the difference and gives you 80 horsepower to be a fitting middle ground for this retromod EV.
Something unique about this car
Taking a nearly 40-year-old car and turning it into an EV is unique enough, but the new Kia Pride EV has something we don’t see in most electric vehicles. Kia and Electrogenic have retained the Pride’s original five-speed manual transmission, which is something you don’t see in any EVs. The auto mode changes things to allow the car to be driving as an automatic and this mode also turns up the regenerative braking to capture more of the braking energy to be sent back to the battery pack.
The look you expect
The electric version of the Pride is kept true to the late 1980s styling package. That said, better lighting has been added to the car to give it improved safety when driving. The car has been resprayed in White Pearl paint, which is a color that’s offered for all of Kia’s modern EVs. Other than these two changes, the Pride has the same exterior as it did in the early 1990s. This means 12-inch steel wheels and small tires, which were the norm during that decade.
Looking inside, the interior has bene given a subtle makeover with lime green accents, which is a color Kia uses to signify a performance-oriented electric vehicle.
How far does it go?
The new Kia Pride can travel approximately 120 miles on a full charge, and we’re not given information regarding how long it would take to recharge the batteries. The added electric conversion increase the weight of the car, but not significantly. The short driving distance isn’t that important considering you can’t buy the car. This electric vehicle was made as a restomod to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Kia, but not be a production item that could be sold to the public.
If you could buy the Kia Pride EV, would you?
