India-bound Kia Sorento (Toyota Fortuner Rival)– Here’s What We Know So Far

Kia Motors is riding on a massive success in India, which comes courtesy of the Seltos and Carnival. Of course, the game never just stops here and Kia is having a lot of plans on the table for the Indian market. Since Kia has announced its intention to introduce a new car in India every six months, we expect the Sorento to be included in the list.

For the one who may not know, Kia Sorento is a popular 7-seater mid-size SUV that has gone on sale in the global markets for quite a long time now. Recently, Kia has released all details about the new-gen Kia Sorento to the world’s enthusiasts. People insisted that the Kia Sorento might become a viable rival to the immensely-popular Toyota Fortuner once it’s launched. We wonder why? What does the Sorento have to offer? IndianAuto has figured it out and here’s all we know so far about the new Kia Sorento.

1. Kia Sorento Exterior Design

The fourth-gen Kia Sorento 2020 was supposed to make its world’s premiere at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the highly contagious virus crisis. Kia doesn’t let the Sorento’s fan-followers wait too long as the company has just unveiled the premium SUV in its full glory to the press and public.

The exterior design of Kia Sorento strikes a huge difference from the existing car, which is already a contemporary-looking SUV itself. In line with Kia’s new-age products like the Seltos, Kia Sorento features a stylish front façade that embraces the signature Tiger Nose grille flanked by a pair of sleek LED headlamps.

The Sorento gets a busy front bumper thanks to the blacked-out air dam and skid plate while the rear end boasts of Telluride-inspired tail lamps, but for a dual-piece setup. Kia's Toyota Fortuner rival makes extensive use of chrome embellishments across its body, thus giving the looker an utmost premium feel.

2. Kia Sorento Dimensions

As far as the proportions are concerned, the Kia Sorento measures 4,810 mm long, 1,900 mm wide, 1,700 mm height along with the wheelbase of 2,815 mm.

These figures just make sense as the Sorento serves as the Korean firm’s important SUV in some major markets. For instance, you can reach out to Philkotse.com – the Number 1 Auto Portal in the Philipines to check out their in-depth expert’s review on the current Kia Sorento, which is the brand's highly prominent car in the country. For India, with this size of sorts, we are pretty sure that the Sorento will also become one of the brand’s flagship car, of course, if it is launched here.

Now let’s take a quick look at how Kia Sorento fares against Toyota Fortuner in terms of dimensions in the table below:

3. Kia Sorento Interior

Interior Design

Kia Sorento is a premium-looking SUV, not only from the outside but also on the inside. The South Korean auto giant claims that the next-gen Kia Sorento will not stray far from what we call “opulence” and it will be the most tech-laden car the company has ever made.

The cabin of 7-seater Kia Sorento features all proper family SUV credentials for as many as 7 occupants on board. A massive 10.25-inch infotainment system stands out on the centre of the dash, combined with a large 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. The black-beige interior theme rolls out an upmarket feel around the corners while the chrome accents bring it to a higher level. The front AC vents with duo setup do make an interesting look.

Features

The Indian buyers have been impressed by how high-tech the Kia Seltos is, but the Sorento will bring in even more. We are yet to see the full feature list of the Kia Sorento 2021 but we expect to a whole array of creature-comforts like touchscreen infotainment compatible with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Kia’s UVO connect, a panoramic sunroof, a 12-speaker Bose premium sound system, 64-colour ambient lighting, seven USB charging ports, engine start/stop, lock/unlock with remote function, geo-fencing, setting service reminders and many more to make a presence.

4. Kia Sorento Engine Specifications

Under the hood, the all-new Kia Sorento will be powered by a 1.6-litre TGDi turbocharged-petrol engine paired with a 44.2 kW electric motor that comes alongside a 1.49 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. This powertrain develops a combined power output of 230 PS and 350 Nm of torque. There’s a Continuously Variable Valve Duration (CVVD) tech used to improve the car’s overall efficiency and performance at lower speeds. Transmission choice for the hybrid is a 6-speed AT.

Besides, a 2.2-litre diesel motor will be also on tap, churning out 202 HP of power and 440 Nm of peak torque. It appears to be ‘juicier” as power is transferred to all wheels via an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

5. Kia Sorento Safety Features

On the safety front, Sorento is promised to come off as a safe drive. It is packed with plenty of advanced driver-assistance systems including blind-spot monitoring, forward collision assists, lane following assist, blind-spot collision avoidance assistance, electric stability control, vehicle stability management as well as driving attention warning. Other than that, two-level autonomous driving tech to control the acceleration, steering, braking, camera and radar sensors will be subject to the availability.

6. Kia Sorento Price in India

In the international markets, the price of the new-gen Kia Sorento remains a secret as it’s not launched yet. The current-gen Sorento retails in the price range of around Rs 20.41- 31.67 Lakh (ex-showroom) in the United States.

While we are not sure if the Sorento can make it to the Indian market or not, we do expect the Kia Sorento India to stand somewhere in the same price bracket of the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour or Skoda Kodiaq once it arrives here. If the South Korean brand can price it well in our country, the Sorento will put its rivals on full alert for sure.