AUTOS CARS CUSTOM

This is the Kia Provo, a Mini-rivalling 'urban racer' concept revealed at the Geneva motor show.

Based on a shortened Kia Rio platform, the four-wheel-drive hatchback is just 3.88m long and 1.35m tall and has a strictly 2+2 cabin layout. It was created by Kia's Frankfurt-based design team, led by chief designer Gregory Guillaume, who reports to Hyundai-Kia design supremo Peter Schreyer.

Guillaume describes the Provo as "entirely a car for European tastes and conditions - an emotional and muscular car aimed at delivering pure fun and performance for today's city-based enthusiast driver".

The Provo has frameless doors, a wrap-around windscreen, dramatic bumper inserts and 19-inch milled aluminium wheels.

Kia designers say they were inspired by road car-based budget competition machines such as the Fiat 500 Abarth, Alfa GT Junior and obscurities such as the Innocenti Mini De Tomaso.

The interior dispenses with a conventional centre console to make the enclosed cockpit feel more spacious. A neat aluminium mount holds the transmission selector and starter button, and the driver uses column-mounted paddle shifters. The instruments and climate controls are animated on LCD screens.

Kia's designers have also taken inspiration from 1950s race cars, using a quilted leather covering across the seats and centre tunnel.

Powering the car's front wheels is a 201bhp 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine, which drives through a seven-speed DSG 'box. The rear axle is driven by a 44bhp electric motor.

Thanks to: Autocar