Price cuts coming for Kia Picanto, Optima

Kia's second-generation Picanto will be much cheaper than the first when it goes on sale next week.

That's because it will be available with a manual transmission – something missing from Kia's original micro-car, which only arrived Down Under 12 months ago.

First launched here in April 2016, the outgoing Picanto 1.3 Si hatch is priced at just $14,990 drive-away with an automatic transmission.

Kia Australia COO Damien Meredith told motoring.com.au the new model would continue with a drive-away auto price point "there or thereabouts" but confirmed a more affordable manual version would be available for the first time.

We understand pricing for the four-speed auto model will increase by about $500 to $15,490 drive-away, but the five-speed manual could open the range as $13,490 drive-away, making it one of the cheapest new cars available.

Both models will come with increased standard specifications and a carryover 62kW/122Nm 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, but it's unclear whether the sporty new GT Line model we drove in Spain earlier this month (pictured) will be available here.

The new Picanto will be launched in Australia next week – little more than a month after its world debut at the Geneva motor show in March and just a year after the original Picanto arrived here last April.

The Picanto was Australia's top-selling micro-car in the first quarter of this year with 825 sales, beating out the Mitsubishi Mirage (573 sales, from $12,250 plus on-road costs) and Holden Spark (278, from $13,990 plus ORCs).

Another Kia model that will soon become more affordable is the Optima sedan, which Meredith confirmed will be "repriced" to make way for the Korean car-maker's new flagship sedan, the Stinger.

While the 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6-powered GT will be the hero of the Stinger line-up (and potentially priced from under $50,000), the all-new rear-drive mid-size sedan will be priced from about $40,000 in entry-level 2.0-litre turbo-petrol form.

That would put it midway between the Optima's current pricing ($34,490 for the base 2.4-litre Si auto and $44,490 for the top-shelf GT auto, which employs the same 2.0-litre turbo engine as the base Stinger), so expect a significant price cut for at least the latter before Kia's first rear-drive sports sedan is released on September 1.