While the Geneva Motor Show is a well-established proving ground for concept vehicles from luxury automakers, it was Kia that attracted the most attention at this year’s event. The company’s all-electric concept vehicle, Imagine by Kia, had some features on offer so far-fetched that industry analysts described the effort as “lampooning the vehicle industry.”
The concept car is a large, C-segment car with a one-piece windshield and sun roof that was “intentionally designed to not sit within the industry’s predefined vehicle categories,” according to a statement by Kia.
The vehicle, which features clamshell “coach” doors, has one very startling feature: 21 individual high-resolution screens in place of a dashboard display. The screens are all angled toward the driver and were designed to create one single display out of aggregated images. The look was designed to be “both casual and coordinated,” according to the automaker.
“Today’s drivers understandably have many questions about electric cars. They’re concerned about range, the recharging network and whether electric cars will still be dynamic and engaging to drive,” said Gregory Guillaume, Kia’s vice president of design, in a statement. “So, when we first started thinking about this concept and imagining what its role would be, we knew that the best way to answer those questions and address those concerns was by approaching electrification purely from an emotional point of view.”
Which the concept car features much to be admired, Kia admits it’s trolling the industry just a bit, particularly with the display.
“These 21 incredibly thin screens are a humorous and irreverent riposte to the ongoing competition between some automotive manufacturers to see who can produce the car with the biggest screen,” Kia Europe’s head of interior design, Ralph Kluge, said in a statement.
The car features a next-generation infotainment system, seating surfaces that are covered in leather and silk, two cargo compartments in the front (“a frunk”), and 22-inch wheels. The lack of technical details released, however, has led many to conclude that the Imagine by Kia is simply a flashy way of communicating the company’s electric future.
