Kia Provo concept revealed

This is the Kia Provo, a Mini-rivalling 'urban racer' concept for the Geneva motor show.

Based on a shortened Kia Rio platform, the four-wheel-drive hatchback is just 3.88m long and 1.35m tall and has a strictly 2+2 cabin layout. It was created by Kia's Frankfurt-based design team, led by chief designer Gregory Guillaume, who reports to Hyundai-Kia design supremo Peter Schreyer.

Guillaume describes the Provo as 'entirely a car for European tastes and conditions - an emotional and muscular car aimed at delivering pure fun and performance for today's city-based enthusiast driver'.

The Provo has frameless doors, a wrap-around windscreen, dramatic bumper inserts and 19-inch milled aluminium wheels.

Kia designers say they were inspired by road car-based budget competition machines such as the Fiat 500 Abarth, Alfa GT Junior and obscurities such as the Innocenti Mini De Tomaso.

The interior dispenses with a conventional centre console to make the enclosed cockpit feel more spacious. A neat aluminium mount holds the transmission selector and starter button, and the driver uses column-mounted paddle shifters. The instruments and climate controls are animated on LCD screens.

Kia's designers have also taken inspiration from 1950s race cars, using quilted leather covering across the seats and centre tunnel.

Powering the car's front wheels is a 201bhp 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine, which drives through a seven-speed DSG 'box. The rear axle is driven by a 44bhp electric motor.