Kia plans to expand the Ceed family to include five models, with a new XCeed SUV on the cards
Spied here for the first time is the new Kia Ceed SUV. Likely to be called the XCeed, Kia’s latest crossover will take on the Ford Focus Active, Volkswagen T-Roc and MINI Countryman in the ever-expanding compact SUV market, and will sit underneath the Sportage in the firm’s line-up.
We expect the new Kia XCeed crossover will be released at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. It should be the final member of the Ceed family, following the release of a more practical Ceed sports wagon and a stylish shooting brake estate, based on the Proceed concept from last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
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When quizzed about the idea of a Ceed SUV earlier this year at the reveal of the firm’s latest family hatchback, Artur Martins, Kia’s vice president of marketing, told Auto Express: “This is something we are putting on the table. There will be no three-door with this car so that gives us the chance to have another body type of the [Ceed] car”.
Martins identified the Ceed’s market (the C-segment) as an area for potential growth for Kia. He said: “We over perform in D-segment and SUVs – we have around 7 per cent market share. We have a chance to increase volume but we have to change the recipe, we have to come with a different proposition, something more relevant”.
According to Martins, a performance version of the Ceed hatchback will also be launched, but it won’t be as focused as the Hyundai i30 N.
Now read our review of the Kia Ceed hatchback. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
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