The 2025 Kia K4 Looks Like a Step Up from the Forte

by Chris Teague

Published: March 21st, 2024

the 2025 kia k4 looks like a step up from the forte

Kia is revamping its entry-level car. The 2025 Kia K4 will be revealed later this month at the New York auto show as a replacement for the long-running Forte. We won’t have full specs on the car until next week, but its styling and design mark a significant step forward for what will likely still be Kia’s most affordable model.

Like the larger K5, the K4 features sleek styling and unique lines with a futuristic look. Kia retained its signature “tiger nose” grille and gave the car vertical headlight units with large LED daytime running lights. The rear features vertical taillights and an integrated diffuser in the lower bumper.

Kia said it designed the interior with two themes in mind. The driver’s space is focused, with displays and controls oriented toward the seat, while the rest of the passenger cabin focuses on comfort and space. The car is available with a range of interior lighting options, and Kia retained physical controls for often-used functions like maps and the climate system. Kia also offers new interior colors, including green, gray, brown, and black.

We don’t have powertrain specs for the new car yet, but Kia’s expected to offer similar configurations to what was seen in the Forte. That would mean a standard four-cylinder engine with an available turbo. The automaker is also expected to develop a hybrid model and a small electric sedan called the EV4.

The 2025 Kia K4 will officially debut on Mach 27 in New York, so we don’t have long to wait for more information. Pricing details will likely wait until closer to the car’s release date later in 2024.

[Images: Kia]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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2 of 26 comments

Danddd on Mar 22, 2024

That rear quarter panel is just lazy design trying to interpret futuristic 60s. Who would approve this?

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Lorenzo on Mar 24, 2024

The 1986 Accord hatchback coupe has returned!

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Bill I bought a 2013 base mini convert manual with less than 30,000 miles last year. While I don't have the beautiful aural sensations of the inline 6, I have been having great fun on the rural roads of western Massachusetts. Kind of a modern version of an old English sports car. I ditched the run flats immediately, went to Conti extremecontact dws 06+. I like them so much I put them on my wife's Audi TT. The shocks I have been eyeing but don't really need yet are Koni special active with FSD technology. Supposed to suppress the sharp nasty bumps but remain firmly sporty otherwise. I had also been looking at the Z4's but couldn't pass on the super low mileage of the mini.
Paul Another beemer boy, immune to the laws of man and physics, driving his M3 through a school zone at 45 since Waze said it would cut 15 seconds off his commute.I bow before your righteous anger.
Paul Oh, the irony. 10 years ago they had solid entries in all these categories - C-Max hybrid and PHEV, Fusion Hybrid and PHEV, Focus Electric. 20 years ago you could get an Escape Hybrid.Ford and their dealers tossed these over the wall and walked away from them, never doing anything to promote or improve them over their life cycle. They still have a newer version of the Escape PHEV, which isn't a bad vehicle but I doubt if the buying public knows they exist & I rarely see one on the road.The Maverick hybrid is a nice idea and they could sell more if they would build more but again, I rarely see one in the wild.Feckless and clueless management and board - they richly deserve their coming bankruptcy.
Lorenzo If Bill Ford wants to see Ford Motor survive another generation, he'll have to hire a replacement for Farley soon, one with an engineering degree and experience with automobile assembly lines and a love for cars, and surround him with other engineering degree executives. Any executives with BA degrees and MBAs don't belong in manufacturing, they're finance people, at best.
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