Kia Carens Clavis Review: SUV Body With MPV Soul

The Kia Carens Clavis is Kia’s latest MPV offering that blends SUV-inspired styling with familiar Carens underpinnings. So, what's new in this heavily refreshed Carens?

Kia has a new MPV! It's this. Wait, you must be wondering it is the Carens. So, what's new? 

It shares its steering wheel and touchscreen with the Syros but, still drives like it used to, just like the Carens. So are there new powertrains? No! It’s just like the Carens. But that’s not all about the Clavis, there’s much more to it. 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Design

A lot of the Carens buyers wanted it to look more like an SUV, and Kia did that with the Clavis. It's more upright, more Butch, especially at the front. The front looks great now, a pseudo-SUV which people might like. It looks very much like a Kia EV, you might think like a Kia EV 5, and that's because this one is getting an EV very soon. Very, very soon…


But the profile doesn’t look like an SUV, it’s still very Carens-like. The connected taillamps finally light up, and wheel size, on the top-end, has also gone up from 16 to 17 inches, and they look good. 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Interior

One of the biggest updates in the Clavis is inside the cabin. Like how Kia is making the exterior look a lot like its EVs, the interior follows a similar design language, too. You see the dashboard here? It follows the same blue and beige as the Carens, but you have different materials. On the dashboard, you have nice plastics, but here, they have used some fabric instead of leather, and there's a nice chrome strip running across.  A 12.3-inch touchscreen and virtual cluster, and the AC control screen is shared with Carnival. Nice. 

But a very strange point, the Syros also has a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, and that gets wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which is not available here because Kia says there's a different user interface. So they couldn't just have wireless in this, go figure. What's also shared with the Syros is this new steering wheel. Finally, you get a 360-degree camera and panoramic sunroof. How thoughtful. 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Second Row

The front seats are great, but since this is an MPV, how’s the second row? 

A lot of the buyers will actually spend the time back here, so let me tell you, it's quite a comfortable place to be. The seats are well-cushioned. And if you think this space isn't enough, you can just pull on this lever and slide it forward to make more space. Boss mode, if you like. There's a nice tray. You can keep your food or your laptop and work. But there's one thing that's really missing. If Kia was making the Clavis more premium, shouldn't they have given ventilated seats back here too? 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Safety

The Clavis comes with all the safety features from Carens as standard, and now it finally gets ADAS too! And there’s a new feature, oncoming collision avoidance. Nice! Since the structure hasn’t changed, don’t expect the crash test scores to either.

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Performance

New car means new powertrains, right? Yeah kinda. Everything is almost the same, but the turbo-petrol now has a 6-speed manual too. All three engines - petrol, turbo-petrol and diesel - have a manual. And since it’s sorta new, does it drive differently? Nope, still drives like it used to, just like the Carens.

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Ride and Handling

But the handling and ride quality must have changed, right? Again, it’s just like the Carens.

To be fair, the ride quality is slightly better because it stays more planted, even in the turns. Since the Carens already drives well, the Clavis does too. 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Variants

To make it more in sync with other Kia SUVs, the Clavis’ variants are now called HTE, HTK, etc, instead of Prestige, Premium and all. 

Kia Carens Clavis Review: Verdict

Now that the Carens Clavis is here, the regular Carens drops most variants, and there’s only one basic trim now – Premium (O) 7 seater. It gets only an 8-inch touchscreen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, reverse camera, six speakers, but none of the fancy stuff from higher variants. And it will soon get a CNG version also. So, get ready to see many of the older Carens as taxis, even though Kia won’t admit to it. There will be an overlap with the base version of the Carens Clavis, but the older Carens will be the more affordable option. 

As for the Carens Clavis, the future is clear. It’s now placed on par with the Seltos in the line-up, making it a more premium MPV. It drives slightly better than before, has way more tech and features and looks very nice. A clear winner for Kia, if priced right. Our expectation is ₹12.5-22.5 lakh. What do you think of this?

Photography by Jitendra