Kia

Kia Habaniro 2025: Price, consumption, picture, technical data.

Last Updated: 16.09.2024

Kia’s concept for the New York auto show is called the Kia Habaniro (we’ll spare you any Kia sharp puns) and it’s a fairly traditional electric compact crossover – but Kia doesn’t want you to think of it that way. It says that HabaNiro “can’t be defined so easily,” so we’ll let Kia’s rather ridiculous press release do much of the talking here. According to them, the HabaNiro is a new car category: an ECEV, or an “all-electric everything car” that’s a combination of “commuter, crossover, sport-utility, cutting-edge tech workshop, and adventure vehicle.” Kia also describes it as “a wonder car,” and says it “has more advanced technology than what helped people walk on the moon.”

Kia Carens

At 171 inches long, the Kia Habaniro is almost identical in length to the regular Niro . But the HabaNiro is a few inches taller, much wider, and rides on a 5.2-inch-longer wheelbase, giving it a much more aggressive stance. The 20-inch wheels on fairly chunky tires and very short overhangs also help the car “exude sinuous muscle and capability,” according to Tom Kearns, the VP of Kia’s U.S. design center.

Michael Cole, Kia’s COO and executive vice president, called the HabaNiro “a work of genius, full of skill and imagination.” The tri-tone exterior features Snowdrift White bodywork, a Lava Red “aero panel” on the C-pillar, and satin Granite Gray body cladding; Kia says these elements create “a vibrant energy” and attitude that makes it look “ready for takeoff.” The HabaNiro is the first Kia in recent memory to forego the brand’s signature tiger nose grille, instead getting a front end that Kia says resembles a shark’s snout. The slot at the top of the front has black-painted aluminum “teeth,” and Verizon logo-shaped LED lights are housed in side openings. Since this is a crossover, there are aluminum skid plates, tow hooks, and other rugged accents. And the daytime running lights, Kia emphasizes, have a “heartbeat pulse” to further emphasize the “animated energy” of this concept.

Each of the HabaNiro’s doors opens butterfly-style to reveal a lava red interior that “suggests passion and vibrancy”. Rather than a series of screens, buttons and knobs, the concept uses a full-width head-up display. This is controlled by a touchpad on a concave acrylic panel with what Kia calls sensory light feedback and a tech option-sharing system that lets the driver and passengers move things around the screen like chess pieces. Light shines through the patterned floor and reflects off interior surfaces, while ambient lighting creates an ambient mood. When full Level 5 autonomy is activated, the steering wheel and instrument panel fold away for more interior space and movies can be projected onto the windscreen.

Your car is watching you

In a small step from 1984, the HabaNiro uses Kia’s Real-Time Emotion Adaptive Driving (READ) system, which uses artificial intelligence and what it calls “bio-signal recognition” to check the driver’s emotional state. This apparently actually works and can “change the conditions related to the human senses in the cabin” to create “a more pleasant and safer driving experience.” Whether something like this would bring joy to most drivers, Kia doesn’t say.

The READ The system’s eye-tracking technology also enables a new type of rear-view mirror. If the driver looks to the spot on the windshield where the rear-view mirror would be, the car activates the rearview camera and projects its view onto the top of the windshield. Kia says it has “no immediate plans” to use AI to detect if a driver is hungry and direct them to a drive-through, but such a thing would be possible with this new technology. But in slightly more reassuring news, Kia insists that AI and autonomy shouldn’t take the fun out of driving – it should instead enhance it, reacting to needs in advance so the driver can focus on driving.

The least outrageous stuff comes when Kia talks about the HabaNiro’s powertrain, and that’s probably because it’s barely mentioned. The concept uses a battery pack of unknown size, and there’s an electric motor on each axle for all-wheel drive. Expected range is said to be over 300 miles.

Kia confirms the notion that this is just a design exercise, but points out that the Stinger and Telluride both started as concepts not intended for production. While Kia says the HabaNiro’s butterfly doors probably won’t make it to dealerships anytime soon, with that comes the statement: “The future is an exciting place.” We have to agree, for all our cynicism, we love the HabaNiro. If it signals a new design direction for Kia crossovers, we welcome it – as long as the over-the-top explanations are kept to a minimum.