About three and a half years have passed since Kia introduced the fourth-generation Carnival, and with life cycles getting shorter, it’s no wonder that the minivan is already due for a facelift. Confirmed to debut before the end of the year, the revised family hauler was seen in South Korea while shooting an ad. In the age of smartphones and social media, it didn’t take long for someone to immortalize the grocery-getter and put the images on Instagram.
In typical Kia fashion, the 2025 Carnival is going through major changes for only a mid-cycle revision. Shaped somewhat like a “T,” the headlights are entirely new and adopt design cues we’ve seen on the company’s latest crop of EVs. It’s easy to notice the grille has a new shape with a wider lower section than before while the pattern has been modified as well. We can’t tell for sure, but it looks as though the fog lights are no longer mounted in the bumper, which also gets a new look.
Typical for a facelift, the profile is essentially carried over, although we don’t remember seeing those two-tone wheels before. At the rear, the taillights echo the changes made at the front as the clusters also form a “T” and meet in the middle courtesy of an updated light bar. Eagle-eyed readers will observe the Kia badge no longer bisects the light bar since it has been moved below. The bumper has been modified, but nothing to write home about. After all, it is a minivan.
Multiple reports state Kia plans to overhaul the interior by installing a pair of 12-inch screens, a new head-up display, fingerprint recognition tech, and massaging seats borrowed from the EV9 electric SUV. We’re hearing it’s also getting a more advanced semi-autonomous driving system along with a hybrid powertrain, possibly borrowed from the Sorento. In the SUV, a turbocharged 1.6-liter gasoline engine works with an electric motor to deliver a combined output of 227 horsepower and 258 pound-feet (350 Newton meters) of torque.
Expect an official debut in the coming weeks, possibly first in South Korea before the equivalent U.S.-spec model.