Kia continues to go edgy with the 2016 Optima remake.

Five years after making its debut at the New York Auto Show, Kia will lift the covers on a new version of the Optima sedan. And the Korean carmaker is hoping that the 2016 model will live up to the brand’s ad slogan, “The Power to Surprise.”

The outgoing Optima was a breakthrough car for Kia, transforming it from a stodgy, value-focused brand to one pushing the boundaries of design. Preliminary renderings released by Kia suggest that the new 2016 Optima will maintain its edginess.

The two images released by Kia pick up on many of the design cues first seen at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month in the form of the Kia Sportspace wagon concept. That show car picked up on the familiar Kia “tiger nose grille, giving it an almost slit-like appearance, with quad LED headlamps. Like the Sportspace, the Optima renderings show a coupe-like curve to the roofline, with bolder sheet metal creases than the current sedan, as well as muscularly flared wheel wells.

Not surprisingly, there’s a hint of Audi A7 to the design. Kia design chief Peter Schreyer was former styling director at the German automaker. He has been the driving force behind Kia’s visual transformation since joining the Korean maker in 2006.

The outgoing Optima also debuted in NY in 2010.

Kia launched the outgoing Optima shortly after the debut of an even more over-the-top Hyundai Sonata. But where the bigger Korean maker decided to play it safe with the latest version of the Sonata, Kia clearly isn’t backtracking with the next Optima.

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When describing the Sportspace concept, Kia’s European design director Gregory Guillaume noted that, “We set out to design a car that is a totally new breed of grand tourer — one for active people who need reasonable cargo space on the weekend, but don’t want to compromise moving around in style, comfort and with an element of sportiness.”

While Kia isn’t yet offering up any images of the Optima interior, the maker went for “grand gestures” with the Sportspace, with details such as a floating instrument panel, accented by an aluminum bar that both supports it and links to two side-mounted air vents. The overall look is decidedly upmarket for a traditionally down-market brand, Kia adopting what it dubbed “hand woven ‘cuoio intrecciato’ seats trimmed with black-polished leather backed with carbon fibre shells.”

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In concept form, the Sportspace was powered by an updated version of Kia’s diesel-electric T-hybrid system shown on an earlier Optima concept at the Paris Motor Show last autumn. In the wagon concept, it paired twin turbos with the 1.7-liter diesel engine, adding a 48-volt electric motor to provide a torque boost at low RPMs. The system is intended to deliver “temporary all-wheel-drive capability,” according to the maker.

The Kia Sportspace Concept shown during its Geneva Motor Show debut earlier this month.

(Kia seems to like the idea of adding an electric motor to the rear axle to add AWD capabilities, as it demonstrated at last month’s Chicago Auto Show. Company officials say they’re giving serious consideration to putting the Trail’ster concept introduced in the Windy City into production.)

In production, American buyers are likely to see the 2016 Kia Optima offered with a choice of a 178-hp 1.6-liter Eco driveline, a 185-hp 2.4-liter inline-four, or a 245-hp twin-scroll turbo 2.0-liter four. But Optima just might offer some green alternatives, as well.

Hyundai announced last month that it will offer two battery-based versions of the midsize Sonata line, a conventional hybrid, as well as a plug-in version. Since both Sonata and Optima share platforms, it’s quite possible Kia will also pick up those two powertrain options.

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