The Korean car brand Kia has kept many of us mobile for the past 35 years. With around 1.2 million Kia vehicles on the UK roads today, from the pint-sized Picanto to the much more sizeable Sorento, the brand has something that will fit the bill for most occasions. But what about those who want to get out into the wilderness and enjoy a more outdoorsy lifestyle? I headed to Milan Design Week to see Kia’s answer to this question — the PV5 WKNDR — in all its concept glory.
And yes, it is currently just a concept. Concept cars have been the whimsical fancy of car designers for decades. They’re often the opportunity for creative brains to envisage something that wouldn’t pass muster in the ‘real world’ of car production but can pave the way for a pared-back, more realisable sibling to roll off the production lines. They can also be the starting point for innovations that might look fanciful right now but, with development and vision, could become an invaluable part of future automotive design.
At first glance, the Kia PV5 WKNDR looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, with its large, rugged, off-road wheels and open side, revealing a rather futuristic-looking dashboard and interior. Being fully electric, there’s no need for a large bonnet to house the engine, so the front is stubby, with the wheels pushed to the corners, reinforcing that futuristic vibe.
It’s a bold statement from the design team, which included Jochen Paesen, Head of Future Design for Kia in Seoul, and Chief Designer Tom Kearns and Head of Future Design, Andre Luis, both from Kia Design Center America. So, I sat down with them to delve a little deeper into the philosophy behind the vehicle and the passion that drove the project.
“Above all,” Jochen tells me, “we have ‘Opposites united’ as our design philosophy, and I think that WKNDR is a perfect example of this — the briefing was ‘dream big, travel smart.’”
“It was important for us, and hopefully we did it. We took the sort of feel of Kia in the future, this kind of clean but very technical, very modern-looking aesthetic,” added Tom, “and really blended it with a more rugged adventure type of feel. I think that’s what really sets that vehicle apart because it looks kind of futuristic, but kind of rugged, and it creates a nice feel when you look at it.”
Kia acknowledges that there are bigger campervans on the market that might, on the face of it, offer more space, but the PV5 WKNDR concept is more about having the freedom to park easily in the city while also being able to head off-road, all with the same compact vehicle.
“The idea for us at Kia was more about making it on a more efficient footprint that allows you to actually manoeuvre in an urban environment and have a very convenient way of driving it, without the discrepancies of a big, voluminous vehicle,” continued Andre. “But once you get out, off the beaten track, you can expand the inner cabin space and, with clever engineering, open the roof, open the gear head, and then it suddenly becomes this little space wanderer.”
“It started with the commercial vehicle, the PV5,” added Tom. “What Andre and his team did is put a Southern California spin on it.” With the blank canvas that is the Kia PV5 van
, the team worked their magic. “We thought, how can we turn this into something that would be suited for the area in which we live? Hopefully, by doing that, it would appeal to other people that live in different parts of the world.”
The designers were keen to convey that whatever your lifestyle, the WKNDR is for you. Whether you’re the outdoors type who heads to the mountains or the beach to surf in your spare time, or even if you like to cook, PV5 WKNDR can provide the backdrop for you. “This car is really something to empower everybody in an active lifestyle,” said Andre. The idea of versatility is supported by a concept known as ‘Beyond Organisation’. Essentially, it’s a rail system for the back of the vehicle, which keeps everything at hand and accessible, and so well-organised that it will create more time for people. “Set-up is just plug and play,” he continued. “Then, the time that you have at your disposal, you should spend adventuring, on the trail or at the beach.”
The design team has envisaged a range of accessories for the rails, such as what has been dubbed the first ‘mobile pantry’, that can house your pots, pans and other necessities, just like in your kitchen at home. Within the rail system, there are some electrified citrus yellow sections, and a custom inductive cooktop has been designed to slot into these rails, creating the perfect hob without the need for open flames, which are now rarely used to cook in Southern California due to the risk of wildfires. The combination creates an outdoor kitchen, giving you that perfect setup for “cooking with a view.”
During the brainstorming process at the start of the PV5 WKNDR project, the term “the ultimate cool van” came up. They wanted to imbibe the vehicle with the coolness of Southern California, where just about everything seems to be that little bit… more. The team didn’t want to create a retro van but something that looks to the future — a brief they most definitely hit, with power management units that double as a digital number plate and wheels containing turbines to harness wind energy; it’s anything but retro.
The PV5 WKNDR, as a concept vehicle, is fairly well removed from the current Kia vehicle lineup. So, I had to ask, what is it that makes it still distinctly Kia in the designers’ minds? “I think we got lucky there,” said Andre. “The PV5 family is very distinctive, it looks like nothing else right now, it’s very graphical. For us, it was kind of take that chemistry, add a bit more stance, a bit more expression, a bit more character, and you suddenly have the secret sauce for something that fits within the family that was already there.”
The Kia PV5 WKNDR is very obviously a labour of love for the whole team, and quite rightly so — it’s quirky, unique and, in all honestly, I’d have one tomorrow. “It’s always easy to work on passion projects,” admitted Andre, “especially for designers.”
“What makes this project so strong,” concluded Jochen, “is that it shows that Kia, as a company, produces extremely good products that think about people, think about useablilty. It’s very much a well-thought-through product, and these types of products start to show that we can then turn up that volume, we can go one level higher, with a lot of heart and a lot of soul.”
But will we see the Kia PV5 WKNDR make it to showrooms at any time in the future? I got to ask that question of Karim Habib, Kia’s Executive Vice President of Design.
“So far, we’ve actually shown concept cars we will produce. In the case of the WKNDR, the purpose was a little different. The purpose was to show how far you can go in terms of customisation and conversion,” said Karim. “The car that you see here will not go into production, but what has happened since then is the whole idea of the WKNDR and the idea of building a full-sized version… I don’t know if I can say that, but the one thing we definitely will do on the PV5 is a camper version.”
It seems then that our hopes of having this particular Kia sitting on the driveway have been dashed, but perhaps there is still light at the end of that tunnel. ”We’ve gotten such an overwhelmingly positive response to WKNDR,” added Tom, “so we’re investigating what’s possible and what we can do.”
Watch this space…
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