Kia has unveiled its newest compact sedan, the 2025 Kia K4, to the world. In Canada, this car has enormous shoes to fill. The K4 will replace the Kia Forte globally, but in Canada it’s also taking up the slack for the discontinued Kia Rio subcompact car and Kia K5 midsize sedan. Plus, it needs to take on the segment’s juggernaut competition, the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.
Here’s everything we know so far about the 2025 Kia K4 in Canada. Be sure to bookmark this page: we’ll update it as we receive more information.
2025 Kia K4 in Canada: What we know so far
- 2025 Kia K4 styling
- 2025 Kia K4 interior design and practicality
- 2025 Kia K4 engines and drive -2025 Kia K4 price and release date
2025 Kia K4 styling
Designers for Korean automotive brands are given plenty of latitude to create edgy styling. That shows here in the 2025 Kia K4 in features like the on-brand sharply angular headlamps, a fastback roof line with a squared rear end and emphatic hips, and lopped-off rear quarter glass. The grille is recognizable as a Kia, but only vaguely: a squat version of the tiger nose grille is positioned between those headlights and looks quite small in comparison. Perhaps the strangest styling decision is integrating the rear door handle into the window frame when doing so doesn’t appear necessary.
On the sportier K4 GT-Line Turbo trim, gloss black finishes are added around the exterior, including on rocker panels and mirror caps. The top-of-the-line GT-Line Turbo Tech trim receives 18-inch alloy wheels and LED headlamps with integrated fog lights.
2025 Kia K4 interior design and practicality
The 2025 Kia K4 is not only larger than the Kia Forte it replaces, but with an overall length of 4,709 millimetres and width of 1,849 mm, it’s also now the largest car in the compact sedan segment.
Heated front seats are standard on all K4s in Canada, and ventilated seats and a memory function for the driver’s seat are equipped on higher trims. The standard interior colour is medium grey, while GT-Line models receive onyx and off-white treatments as well as a three-spoke steering wheel. An available acoustic windshield and acoustic tires on K4 models with 18-inch wheels aim to quiet the cabin.
The Connected Car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) operating system with over-the-air update capability has made its way from the EV9 all the way to this entry-level sedan. Two 12.3-inch screens, one for the digital instrument cluster and another for the infotainment system, flanks another 5-inch screen used to adjust climate controls. As of this writing, it’s not clear which trims will come with this technology. On the 2025 Kia K4, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.
Kia’s Digital Key 2.0 is available, which allows owners to use compatible smartphones as virtual vehicle keys to lock, unlock and drive the K4. Keys can also be passed virtually to friends or family members. The 2025 Kia K4 sedan has a cargo capacity of 413 litres, which is more than the Toyota Corolla offers and is roughly on par with the Honda Civic.
2025 Kia K4 engines and drive
Kia brings the 2025 K4 to market without a single electrified powertrain option, which is an unusual move in this day and age. The engine selection instead carries over from the outgoing Kia Forte. The base mill is a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine generating 147 horsepower and 132 lb-ft of torque, paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). An available 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder creates 190 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque that’s sent through an eight-speed automatic transmission.
There’s also no all-wheel drive (AWD) option on the Kia K4; this compact sedan will be front-wheel drive (FWD) only. However, the top GT-Line Turbo Tech trim receives a multi-link rear suspension for improved control and handling.
Safety gets a tune-up in the Kia K4, with rear side airbags added as standard equipment. A suite of driver assistance technologies is available such as adaptive cruise control with stop and go, lane keep assist, speed limit assist, and forward collision avoidance with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction turning assist. On the GT-Line Turbo Tech trim, forward collision avoidance can also detect crossing vehicles while crossing through an intersection. The GT-Line Turbo trim is available with blind-spot collision avoidance assist as well as Hyundai Group’s blind view monitor, which projects a camera view of the car’s blind spot onto the instrument cluster when a turn signal is activated. A 360-degree camera and parking distance warning sensors are also optional.
2025 Kia K4 price and release date
In Canada, the 2025 Kia K4 will be offered in five trims: LX, EX, EX+, GT-Line Turbo, and GT-Line Turbo Tech. The 2025 Kia K4 will go on sale in Canada in the second half of this year. Pricing has not yet been announced as of this writing, but given that the Kia Rio has departed Canada as well as the Forte, we expect the K4 will take up the entry-level position in Kia’s line-up and will be priced accordingly.
A hatchback version of the K4 is slated to follow the sedan soon after its launch as a replacement for the Forte5. The 2025 Kia K4 Hatchback is confirmed for the U.S. market, but there’s no official word yet as of this writing that it’s also coming to Canada.