- Kia has released a few official photos of the 2021 Sorento weeks before its scheduled debut at the Geneva auto show.
- The interior is the top-grade trim with a brand-new screen layout and special air vents.
- Sales should start by the end of this year.
The first interior photos of the upcoming Kia Sorento are good. Very good. The car world now expects modern Korean vehicles to exude class, and the Sorento—currently a bit ovoid and dull—is the latest Kia to shed a less desirable skin.
Kia
We saw the new Sorento undisguised a couple of weeks ago when a spy photographer shot one in California driving for a photo shoot. Kia just released these four official studio photos ahead of the crossover’s debut in Geneva in a couple more weeks. The tan-and-black combo is appealing on its own, what with the two-tone steering wheel and quilted stitching on the seats.
Kia
But most striking are the vertical air vents that echo the Mustang-like taillights. They’re a little fatter and very rhomboidal. Each arches outward over the dash with more concentric rhombuses directing the airflow. From Mercedes-Benz’s swiveling circles to Audi’s full-width strip, air vents may be the hottest detail in new car design. The Sorento has some of the best we’ve seen, and we see a lot.
Kia
They’re offset by rectangular door handles and thick, long door pulls that echo the larger Telluride (also, spot the heated/cooled seat toggle switches on the center console, another Telluride touch). What’s refreshing is that the Sorento, unlike every Volvo and BMW on sale, is not a scaled-down version of a larger, more expensive model. It looks remarkably clean sheet. The double wide screens—12.3 inches for the instrument cluster, 10.3 inches for the infotainment—blend as one seamless unit. That this look debuted for the 2014 S-class and is now on a Kia seven years later is middle-class progress, baby.
Kia hasn’t provided any other details, but expect these screens to head to the Telluride—which uses an analog instrument panel—sooner rather than later. We’re also digging the hot-pink icons and the blue ambient lighting peeking out of the door trim like illuminated fish scales. While this interior is representative of the highest trim, it’s a fair estimate that base and midlevel Sorento trims will look and feel pretty good.
Check back in early March when we can sit inside this car for ourselves.
