The folks at Kia have finally shown off the 2021 Kia Carnival’s interior, and it looks impressive. If you’re not familiar with the Carnival, you might know it better by its other name: the Kia Sedona. While the interior cabin is still a question, the front passenger area and the dashboard are both here for full display.
If you’ve been following automotive interior trends, you probably know that interior screens are going the way of the smartphone: they’re only getting bigger. While a series of huge screens might not be the most important part of your next BMW M3, it probably is if you’re shopping for your next Family Truckster. As you can see in the image above, the next-generation Kia Sedona has screens.
On the dashboard, it’s hard to miss the pair of iPad-style screens docked in front of the driver. Directly in front of the driver is a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. It’s flanked to the right by another 12.3-inch touchscreen that controls the infotainment system. Now, if you’re thinking this looks familiar: you’re probably remembering the interior of currently available Mercedes-Benz E- and S-Class sedans.
Moving toward the center of the Sedona interior, we can see that the upcoming minivan will use a rotary-dial shifter, similar to what we see from Chrysler on its Pacifica minivan. We also see that the climate controls have not been rolled into the touchscreen, and still feature physical buttons to adjust the cabin temperature. As with all minivans, we can see that there’s no shortage of storage and cup holders. For the two front occupants, there are three cup holders.
Kia claims that there are also seatback-mounted USB chargers for the folks in the second row and that the Carnival will sport as many as four rows of seating, though we’ll see how many of those features come stateside when the Sedona makes an official appearance.
The Carnival is hitting Kia dealers in Korea later this year as a 2021 model. We probably won’t see the new minivan under Sedona guise until next year, likely as a 2022 model.
