Put its silly name aside and what you see is more than just a concept that Kia has introduced at this year's Geneva Motor Show.
Reflecting on what Kia plans for the future, the Imagine ships with plenty of elements that can rightfully tag it as futuristic. A good example of that would be the stack of 21 (yes, twenty-one) interior screens that are an ironic take on the increasing acreage of media displays inside cars.
The screens, however, is just a piece of the difficulty pie. We believe you might need a crystal ball to work out what else is going inside the Imagine. The company has been suspiciously tight-lipped about the performance but we are told that like many others, the batteries will be sandwiched in the floor that feed an electric motor or two.
The Imagine stands as a swoopily shaped, somewhat muscular high-hauling electric sedan with suicide doors. A new logo badges the car along with other 'futuristic' elements like the LED DRL that frames that car as if it had worn sunglasses.
Similar to what was seen on Tesla's Model 3, the roof and windscreen are a single piece of glass. The Imagine also features a 'frunk' in addition to a trunk. The paintwork, as we are told, consists of six hand-applied layers of chrome-effect paint with a bronze tint on top.
Kia Europe COO Emilia Herrera believes that fully-electric cars are just one prong of the company's future. “We don't think the future is 100 per cent electric, so we're prepared for all types of engine technology,” he told Top Gear.
“That's why we have internal combustion, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, fully electric and we're working with our Hyundai brothers on a hydrogen vehicle, which we'll see by 2021 at the latest.
“The idea is to have everything available in our range, and every vehicle we launch from now on will have some form of electrification, even the Picanto. We're adding plug-in hybrid for Ceed in November, for instance.”
