Kia has confirmed the new 2018 Ceed will make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The European-designed car will be shown in five-door hatchback guise, plus “a second member of the Ceed family”.
It’s not yet clear what this second variant will be: Kia is dropping the slow-selling Pro_Cee’d three-door. Early rumours indicate the Geneva surprise could be a Kia Stinger-inspired fastback or shooting-brake style model: sister company Hyundai has recently rolled out a fastback version of its i30 hatchback.
Kia says the new Ceed hasn’t just been designed in Europe, but has been fully developed and engineered here too. Indeed, Kia says it’s been honed exclusively for Europe’s more challenging roads. Buyers are thus promised a more engaging drive, new engines and some innovative new tech.
The i30 offers 120hp 1.0-litre turbo and 140hp 1.4-litre turbo petrol engines, both of which will also be available in the new Ceed. The 1.6-litre turbodiesel will also be upgraded, and there’ll be a choice of manual or DCT automatic gearboxes.
It’s also going to be simpler to write: at last, Kia has dropped the apostrophe from the name – so Cee’d becomes Ceed. Few got it right anyway, and the firm has at last banished two generations of irritation with this third-generation model.
Kia has reminded us what Ceed actually stands for, too: Community of Europe, with European Design. We hope it’s thus just a coincidence that European left-hand drive sales have been confirmed to begin in Q2 2018, but the UK on-sale date is currently simply to “be announced in due course”…