So its finally happening that Kia is dropping the “Sedona” branding for its US-spec minivan which will be called the Carnival which is already being used around the world It’s official because the new naming has been listed on the EPA’s fuel economy website that Motor Trend first spotted on Thursday.
The new Kia Carnival is being listed as a 2022 model with a fuel economy ratings of 19 miles per gallon city and 26mpg highway and 22 mpg combined. Also, the EPA listing confirms the use of a 3.4-liter V6 engine with eight-speed automatic transmission.
If we’re to compare that to the current Kia Sedona has an older 3.3-liter V6 and returns 18 mpg city, 24 mpg highway and 21 mpg combined which isn’t very far from one another.
The Kia Carnival Korean-spec was debuted just this past summer with the design looking quite like an SUV and for real, the design aesthetics is great-looking. Now entering into the American market, the new Kia Carnival minivan will be entering into a competition with existing big-guys like the Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.
This won’t be the first time that Kia will be changing the name of one of its product in the United States. A recent drop of name was when the company dropped the Optima name for K5
Kia did not immediately return our request for comment, but given that the Carnival name appears on the official US EPA website, we can’t imagine this is a fluke.