Kia pro_cee'd concept: First Look

Motoring Channel Staff - 29/Sep/2006

Paris, France — Kia Motors has revealed its latest concept car that builds on the Korean car maker's new Toyota Corolla rival, the oddly-named "cee'd". 

Built for European customers (but will also be sold in Australia later in 2007), the new small car from South Korean automaker Kia gets a concept version in addition to the production model for the 2007 Paris Motor Show. Aptly named the pro_cee'd, the strikingly styled concept is based on the forthcoming 3-door sporty hatch version of the all-new cee’d.

Other production model cee'd cars - a 5-door family hatch - will be launched in production-ready form at Paris and will be manufactured at Kia’s European assembly plant in Slovakia from November 2006, and will followed by wagon versions, which will be built at the same Zilinia facility in Slovakia in mid-2007. 

It will be Kia's first vehicle to be built in Europe and the fact that it gets a concept version signals just how important the new vehicle is to the fledgling automaker.

Gregory Guillaume, the chief designer for Kia at the European Design Centre had this to say about the pro_cee'd concept: "Following on from the original cee’d concept, our design brief for pro_cee’d was to create a teaser for the all-new cee’d sports hatch which will become the third model in the cee’d line-up."

The pro_cee’d has kept the family resemblance to cee’d with its dynamic and muscular appearance. Key attributes which the pro_cee’d and cee’d models will have in common include the lowered roof line and shallower side windows edged with chrome trim that creates a robust and sporty window graphic. As the images purport, it's a very attractive vehicle that the already improving automaker will benefit from.

The pro_cee'd interior is designed to accommodate four people in sporty bucket-styled seats and is trimmed to give a strong feeling of performance.

The three recessed dials of the instrument panel have separate metal cowlings set beneath a top cowling that appears to float above the dashboard. The dense matte black trim of the upper dashboard continues around the upper sides of the cab and the lower panels are trimmed in special 'Pilot Brown' distressed leather, the quality of an old flying jacket – "leather with a history and a story to tell…" as Guillaume enthuses.

"Like the 5-door cee’d, which also has its world premiere at Paris, the pro_cee’d will be a truly European product, designed and made in Europe. But whereas the 5-door is a great handling family car, this version of cee’d will be targeting younger drivers in search of a more overtly sporty look to go with the sporty drive," stated Guillaume.