The 2025 Kia Carnival looks destined to get its first refresh soon. Kia just posted photos of the lightly re-styled minivan and a few preliminary details, so let’s get into it.

Up front, the Carnival is getting a new grille, new headlight design and a new bumper. Essentially, it’s a totally new face with a much greater emphasis on vertical elements, particularly from the new vertically-oriented headlights. Instead of the zig-zag DRLs on the current van, the new one has its lights extend downward through the stacked LED headlights and also horizontally into the center of the grille. The lower side intakes in the bumper are gone, but the main central opening in the lower bumper looks enlarged.

A similar theme is present in the Carnival’s rear design, as the taillights extend downward and horizontally, but don’t fully meet in the middle for a full-width light. The tailgate itself is also totally redesigned, and the lower bumper is a new shape with new trimmings, too. And we’d be remiss to not mention the new wheels that remind us of the EV9’s geometric design, but feature unique styling all their own. This might only be a refresh, but Kia has changed a whole lot about the way the Carnival presents itself, and we like the new look.

Kia hasn’t said a whole lot, but one detail to note is that there will be a new “Gravity” trim that features dark metallic colors as its theme. We’re probably months away from a full U.S. reveal of the refreshed Carnival, but our hopes are high for an interior just as impressively overhauled as the sharp, new exterior.

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