Video: 2025 Kia Carnival Up Close

Exterior styling changes are fairly minimal. There's a new grill design that's a bit wider and bolder than the previous Carnival, and they're also these new amber daytime running lights in a star map design. The overall look is a bit more aggressive, I think it looks good, but not a huge departure from the previous Carnival. In back, design changes are still fairly minimal. You get star map design tail lights, a very hard to read Carnival badge. Overall, Kia insists on calling the Carnival an MPV, a multipurpose vehicle, but to me, it's really just a good looking minivan. There's some changes to the cockpit, overall, the Carnival's design feels very familiar to me having been in a number of Kias. This is a new optional 12.3 inch digital instrument panel, it's also a new 12.3 inch touchscreen display, it runs Kia's new connected car navigation OS, Kia says it's faster, more responsive, if it's anything like Kia's previous systems, it should work pretty well. One annoying thing for me, personally, is this dual climate audio control panel. It's touch sensitive controls for the most part, there are dials, but it switches between climate and audio depending on what you want to control and I prefer, A, physical controls, and, B, dedicated controls for both, not having to switch between them. Other useful features in the Carnival include a rear view camera mirror option, in case your view behind is blocked in the traditional rear view mirror. Kia says there are seven USB-C ports throughout the cabin, there's two right here, also, two 115 volt inverters for extra power options. Also worth noting is that this is updateable via over the air updates, so as Kia comes up with new innovations, you should be able to get them, even if you've already bought a Carnival, rather than having to buy a new one, which is nice. One more cockpit change is this rotary gear selector, that's because this is the hybrid Carnival. The gas version still has its traditional lever selector. This version of the Carnival comes with the optional VIP lounge seat package, which gives you these individually cushy captain's chairs in the second row. Unfortunately, I'm not actually very comfortable. I can raise the foot rest, which would be nice, except now my feet are getting trapped under the front seat, I am in pain, so I'm going to move that back out of the way and put my feet back where I'm comfortable. They are heated and ventilated, that's nice. You do have the optional connected cockpit rear entertainment system with 14.6 inch displays for both, they can do streaming content, things like that. Overall, I would skip this package, unless you're trying to use this as a limousine, these seats are very large, they eat into third row access, they eat into third row room as well. Not really worth it. They also don't really fold or stow or do anything useful to help you with cargo storage, which is one of the big pluses of a minivan. So go for more traditional seating in the second row and I think you'll be a lot happier. Remember how I said the VIP lounge seats eat into third row room? Well, I'm sitting in the third row of this Carnival hybrid and I am very uncomfortable. My knees are very high up in the air, they're also in the back of the second row captain's chairs, not a great place to be for a 6'1" adult like me. You might be better off with kids, especially kids who are in car seats, but no guarantee that car seats are going to have the necessary room either. So again, if you can do without the VIP lounge seats, I really think that's the way to go. Safety updates for the Carnival include updated forward collision avoidance, which includes new scenarios that it can handle, trying to keep you from getting into an accident, including at junctions, when you're making lane changes. And also it has new evasive steering assist as well. It also includes as optional Kia's Highway Driving Assist 2 feature, which is a hands-on sort of semi-autonomous driving, it combines adaptive cruise control with lane centering steering, and can even make assisted lane changes as well, which is a nice feature for highway driving. But it is not a hands-free system by any means, you are gonna have to keep your hands on the wheel. The new Carnival hybrid combines a turbocharged 1.6 liter four cylinder with a 54 kilowatt electric motor, and that's paired to a six speed automatic transmission. That's a similar setup that we found in the hybrid Sorento and Sportage SUVs. This version, however, makes 242 horsepower and 271 pounds feet, which is more. Annoyingly, despite the fact that this is a hybrid and that's a big deal and the biggest selling point of a hybrid is fuel economy, we don't have any fuel economy ratings just yet. We do expect it to be better than the gas-only Carnival. That Carnival still has the 3.5 liter V6 engine with an eight speed auto. We really enjoy that combination, no changes to it for 2025. And regardless of whether you get the hybrid or the gas-only Carnival, all 2025 Carnivals are front-wheel drive. We're still waiting on final details for the 2025 Kia Carnival, including pricing and that pesky hybrid fuel economy, but we expect those to be announced closer to its on sale date, which Kia says is sometime this summer. For more on the 2025 Kia Carnival and everything else here at the 2024 Chicago Auto Show, you can find it on cars.com.