Kia Picanto three-door (2011): first pictures

Kia is launching a three-door version of the Picanto for the first time. The new entry-level supermini arrives in showrooms on 1 September 2011, priced from £7795.

It's a wedgy, attitudinal hatch designed to broaden the appeal of the Picanto. Rather more cheesily, Kia says 'if the five-door Picanto is the small car, grown up, then the three-door is the same but with a twinkle in its eye.'

The Koreans have faultless logic behind launching a three-door Picanto. It forecasts global demand for A-segment city cars to hit 2.4 million by 2014.

Yet within a year, that'll hit 3.3m by 2015 - and a third of those will be three-door city cars.

In the UK, city car buyers are split 55:45 in favour of five-doors.

The new Kia Picanto comes with a 1.0 or 1.25-litre petrol engine. Pick the most frugal, and you'll enjoy headline claims of 67.3mpg and 99g/km.

The 1.0-litre '1' spec three-door Picanto model costs £7795, rising to £11,695 for a 1.25 Equinox.

By Tim Pollard