The Kia Meta Turismo Is The Brand’s 80th Birthday Present To Itself

Earlier this week, we brought you news of Kia teasing a striking-looking four-door concept, with very little other info to go on. Well, now Kia has revealed that concept in full, and ‘striking’ is definitely the word for it.

It’s called the Meta Turismo, and it’s been designed to celebrate a big birthday for a company that’s been around longer than you think. While it’s only been making cars since the ’70s, the company we know today as Kia started making bicycles in 1944 which was… 81 years ago, last time we checked. Despite that, Kia says the Meta Turismo celebrates its 80th anniversary, but the car looks cool, so we’ll excuse it for seemingly being an entire year late.

What of the concept, then? Kia says it’s designed around three key pillars: ‘performance driving’, ‘immersive driving experience through digital interaction’, and ‘spaciousness of the lounge space’. Okay then.

The way those three things manifest themselves are in a low-slung four-door with a stubby front end featuring the running lights sitting high up on aero-fins, that gigantic front windscreen that tapers off into a point, and some rear lights with a bit more of a concrete link to Kia’s present-day cars. Some interesting wheels, too, which look as though they might do some sort of funky active aero thing, but we don’t know at the moment.

What we do know is that inside, the driver gets their own cocoon-like golden seat with some sort of lever protruding from the armrest. The gear selector, maybe? As you might be able to tell, there aren’t a lot of details on this concept just yet. 

Pretty much the only info Kia has provided is about the augmented reality HUD projected onto the bottom of the windscreen, which apparently has three different graphics settings – Speedster, Dreamer and Gamer. We assume it’s depicted in the last of those here, given the talk of missions and global rankings.

Kia hasn’t even said what hypothetically powers the Meta Turismo. We assume it’s an EV, partly because there doesn’t really look to be any room for an engine in there, and partly because it’s a 2025 concept car, but then again, the driver display seems to show it in first gear. Maybe it’s got some Ioniq 5 N-style simulated gears.

Kia says more info on the car is forthcoming, but for now, that’s yer lot. What do you reckon – total flight of fantasy, or will we soon be seeing Kias that look like this cruising the streets?