2022 Kia Carnival to debut in Malaysia – 2.2L diesel, 11-seater MPV arrives as CBU, goes CKD in May 2022

The Malaysian reveal of the new Kia Carnival is set take place soon, with the MPV due to make its first public showing at a preview later this week. Ahead of that, details and specification of the fourth-gen offering have emerged.

The Carnival arrives here in fully-imported form, and will be available in a solitary 2.2D guise. Originally, the intention was to get the MPV up and running as a CKD model from point of introduction, but delays as a result of the pandemic means local assembly is only set to begin in May next year.

Like Thailand, the Carnival for our market will be a 11-seater, the configuration allowing it to be placed under the commercial vehicle category, where the tax is lower. It’ll be powered by a Smarstream R 2.2 VGT turbodiesel, offering 199 hp at 3,800 rpm and 440 Nm of torque from 1,750 to 2,750 rpm. The mill is paired with an eight-speed automatic gearbox, with drive sent to the front wheels.

As standard, the Carnival is equipped with dual LED headlamps, LED daytime running lights and fog lamps, bulbed rear combination lights and fog lamps, auto headlamps/wipers and 18-inch two-tone alloy wheels with 235/60 profile tyres.

Inside, there’s black/Saddle Brown leatherette upholstery, and standard features include keyless entry, push-button start, eight-way power-adjustable front seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, paddle shifters, rotary gear selector, dual-zone front and single-zone rear air-conditioning, dual powered-sliding doors and a hands-free powered tailgate.

Displays consist of a 4.2-inch TFT-LCD instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch capacitiva infotainment touchscreen, with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity and a six-speaker audio system in tow.
Other bits include seven USB ports across the interior as well as Qi wireless charging.

Safety-wise, the Carnival is equipped with seven airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, electronic stability control, traction control and second-row ISOFIX child seat anchors. Also present, front/rear parking sensors and a surround view monitor offering a 360-degree view around the vehicle.

While the automaker’s Drive Wise assistance suite is present, the item count on the Malaysian vehicle is low – present is blind spot monitoring and collision avoidance and rear cross traffic collision avoidance, but there’s no autonomous emergency braking or adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go to be found in the CBU version. Hopefully, the CKD route will address this.

Six exterior colour choices are listed for the car, and these are Snow White Pearl, Silky Silver, Aurora Black Pearl, Panthera Metal, Astra Blue and Flare Red. Order books have opened for the MPV, with official pricing expected to be revealed by Dinamikjaya Motors later this week. In Thailand, the MPV is available in three variant forms, priced from RM233,000 to RM308,700.