Kia is to unveil a striking new concept car at the
Geneva Motor Show, which will be aimed (in production format) at cars such as the
VW Golf,
Renault Megane and
Ford Focus. Kia's new C'eed concept is tipped to go on sale in Britain early in 2007.
This concept, which is named Cee'd, is to be the Korean carmaker's first European produced model and production will kick off at the end of 2006 at a new assembly facility in Slovakia. The production version will be unveiled at the
Paris Motor Show in September and when it goes on sale in Europe it will rival cars in the competitive C-segment.
The Cee'd concept features a classy appearance with flowing lines, while it shares design cues with other new generation Kias.
"Our design brief was to create a 'teaser' for the all-new Kia which has been designed entirely in Europe and will make its world premiere at the Paris Show in September," explained Gregory Guillaume, chief designer of Kia's European design centre.
"We wanted to make the Cee'd as beautiful, as exquisitely detailed and precisely executed as possible. We wanted to introduce this concept as the starting point for the new design DNA for Kia, to highlight that this car is designed in Europe and made in Europe, to fulfil 100% of European customer needs."
According to Kia this Geneva concept car is named Cee'd for two reasons. "CEE" to symbolize that both the concept and the forthcoming production model are "made in Europe", and to represent the "seed" for future growth in Kia.
Wheels24 - 21 Feb 2006