Kia ProCeed Makes Its Debut In Barcelona

Caroline travels to Barcelona for the European premiere of the new Kia Proceed!

The 3 door hatchback is finished. That was the message Peter Schreyer, President of Design and Chief Design Officer at Kia, and Gregory Guillaume, Kia’s European Head of Design, received from the product team when it came to creating the next generation of the Kia ProCeed.

So what did they do? They began to create a new vision for a C-segment niche vehicle. Customer profiling revealed that there were buyers who wanted a stylish and sporty vehicle – but they wanted rear doors and other practical features too.

And so began the process of developing this new generation of the Kia ProCeed. At an event in Barcelona to unveil this new model, Emilio Herrera, Chief Operating Officer for Kia Motors Europe, spoke about the uniqueness of the ProCeed in the mid-size family car segment. Based on the 2017 Kia ProCeed Concept, the new ProCeed is casually referred to by its designers as a ‘shooting brake’ within the Kia Ceed family.

Really it’s still a hatchback, but with the evocative shape of a coupé and the practicality of an estate model. The ProCeed is lower and longer than the Ceed five-door hatchback and Sportswagon (estate). It shares only its bonnet and front wings with the Ceed five-door and at 594 litres, the ProCeed’s boot is 50% bigger.

Niche models within segments are typically more common with premium brands but the ProCeed is yet another embodiment of the ethos of Kia – it’s the brand with ‘the Power to Surprise’! So as such the ProCeed doesn’t have any direct rivals. It’s fair to say that it’s a brave and aspirational move from Kia but hardly surprising judging from their recent form in the shape of the stunning new Stinger GT and a slew of stylish models like the Optima and Ceed.

Sitting alongside the recently launched Ceed hatchback and SW (estate), the new ProCeed will be positioned as a more high-end, prestigious vehicle. To that end, it will be exclusively available in more salubrious GT-line and GT trims.

The cabin is similar to the Ceed with soft touch materials, stylish metallic trim and Kia’s 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system sits at the centre of the dashboard. But there are a few changes designed to introduce a sportier ambience to the cabin, including a black headliner and D-shaped steering wheel.

Engines for this new model include a 1.0-litre T-GDi (120 ps), 1.4-litre T-GDi (140 ps) and a 1.6-litre CRDi diesel engine, though we don’t know what will make it to Ireland yet when the car goes on sale here in early 2019.

The ProCeed has been designed and developed exclusively for Europe. According to Kia, it has been engineered to be engaging to drive. Though built on the same ‘K2’ platform as other Ceed models, Kia says that they have fine tuned the suspension geometry to give the ProCeed its own unique agile and responsive character within the Ceed range, along with the comfort that owners would expect of the ‘grand touring’ shooting brake body.

There will also be a ProCeed GT, a more high performance model powered by a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine producing 204 ps and 265 Nm and uniquely tuned to be the sportiest variant in the range.

The new Kia ProCeed will make its public premiere at the 2018 Paris Motor Show. Kia Ireland expects the car to go on sale here in early 2019. Further information and detail on pricing and specifications will be available closer to launch.

Caroline Kidd