I happened to be in a Kia dealership recently, helping a friend shop for a new econobox.
I noticed that in 3 generations, the Rio upper grille has changed quite a bit:
2007: functional, normal grille ...
Functional, normal upper grille:
2017: "Fake grille" ...
Designed to look like a conventional grille, but it's almost 100% blocked:
2018: "Ornamental grille" ...
It's fully blocked, but aside from location, it's not really pretending to be a conventional grille -- there's no fake grillework / crosshatching pattern. It's smooth:
I've seen a similar smooth ornamental grille on the Kia Soul too. (And not just the EV version.)
Also interesting: those are actually functional air inlets (by the fog lamps) for the front wheel "air curtains". Interesting that the base Rio & Accent have such a thing.