Everyone loves a sleeper, and Kia UK has come up with a beaut to mark the automaker’s 80th anniversary, upcycling one of its old city runarounds to turn it into an EV, and upping the power output by 77 percent in the process. Brits know the little white box you see here as the Kia Pride, the car that introduced UK drivers to the brand in 1991 and was infamous for its bizarre whitewall tires. But if you’re in the US, you’ll know it as the Ford Festiva, which was built by Kia in South Korea from Mazda’s 121 blueprints. Those econo-hatchbacks came with 1.1 and 1.3-liter engines, but even the bigger motor only put out 60 hp. This EV-converted example is getting on for twice as potent.
A new zero emissions powertrain replaces
the combustion motor in this 1996 Pride, but Kia and EV specialist Electrogenic
opted to retain the five-speed manual transmission. Let’s hope they gave it
some fresh bearings to go with the new upgraded clutch because that gearbox now
has to deal with 107 hp, and as much as 235 Nm of
torque instead of 135 Nm. Though much improved, those numbers still
look lame next to even the 225 hp of the weediest,
single-motor Kia EV6. But then the EV6 weighs 2,065 kg and the
electrified Pride just 870 kg, including a mere 20 kg penalty for the EV swap. Like the EV6, the Pride has multiple drive modes. Eco
limits power to 60 hp and torque to 118 Nm and
provides acceleration similar to what the original ICE car offered (0-62 mph in
11.8 seconds). Auto gives drives more of a modern EV experience by letting them
leave the Pride in third gear and forget about the transmission, while also
offering more regenerative braking. Top speed is limited by the ratio so it’s
going to be no good for motorway runs, but with 80 hp and 176 Nm on tap it should feel nippy during urban adventures.
Finally, there’s Sport, which provides the
maximum 107 hp and 173 lb-ft, and is estimated to be good for zero to 62 mph in
around 8 seconds. That’s slightly down on the 7.7 seconds of the base 225 hp
EV6, which has no gears to shift and a modern set of fat tires instead of the
puny 12-inch skinnies on the Pride. But those puny original wheels and plastic
caps are a key part of this car’s sleeper appeal. Even the charging socket is
hidden under the stock filler flap. Most people seeing it drive by would just
think it’s a perfectly preserved original, though there are some subtle
upgrades.
One is the paint, this car’s orginal
Kingfisher blue metallic having been replaced by a White Pearl paint available
on Kia’s current EV cars. The front and rear lights have also been upgraded and
the interior retrimmed in a period-looking cloth, but finished with lime green
stitching that references the interior details and brake calipers on the 577 hp EV6 GT. Unlike many electromods, this one even retains its original
instrument pack, Electrogenics’ DCU tech turning the fuel gauge into a
remaining charge indicator. One thing the converted Pride doesn’t do faster
than the original is ‘fill up’. There are two 10 kWh battery packs, one under
the hood and a second under the trunk floor, and the 3.3 kW on-board charger
takes six hours to take them from flat to full. But the Pride’s tiny curb
weight means it can cover a useful 193 km on a charge, which is probably further
than anyone would want to go in a car that was just built for a bit of fun.
And it does look like a lot of fun, but
there’s still one version of Mazda’s original 121 design that’s even naughtier.
It’s called the Shogun and it was a project to create something along the lines
of an American MG Metro 6R4 or Renault 5 Turbo by dumping a Taurus SHO V6 into the
back of a Ford Festiva.
