Kia's European boss, Paul Philpott, has admitted that Kia is working on a compact two-seat roadster that will rival the Mazda MX-5.
Although he did not give an exact launch date, he slated 2013 and the year after as being years in which the Korean brand would think about 'halo' models, once the latest batch of mainstream Kias have been launched.
This forms part of a move to reposition Kia as a sportier and more youthful alternative to its sister-brand Hyundai - as differentiating the two is an absolute no brainer.
Philpott even went as far as equating Hyundai to VW and Kia to SEAT, the former taking on the role of producing cars that are more elegant and comfortable.
As for the design of the small roadster, Kia's design head, Peter Schreyer, said that it would get a more aggressive interpretation of the 'tiger nose' grille that we've seen on the latest batch of Kia production cars, while other speculations point to it having a similar headlight shape to the Pop concept.