Kia will complete its cee’d family of cars with the three-door version of the Slovakian-built model joining the five-door and estate when it is launched in the UK next January.
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Unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the elaborately monikered pro_cee’d will be marketed as the range’s sporty alternative.
Simon Hetherington, Kia UK’s marketing director, said: “We are just finalising the line-up for the UK but we see it very much as the image-model in the range. For that reason we will not be bringing in the entry 1.4 petrol engine.
“The Pro_cee’d range will feature the 1.6 petrol and diesel engines along with a 2-litre diesel. We are also looking at the option of a 2-litre petrol.”
Kia expects to sell around 13,000 cee’ds in a full year of which around 15-20 per cent will be the new three-door.
Hetherington said he hoped to back the launch with a new cee’d television advertising campaign in January.
He added: “We have not got to the concept stage of the campaign yet but I would like the pro_cee’d to be the focus for the whole of the range.”
With the cee’d family starting to establish itself, Kia UK’s managing director Paul Philpott is also looking ahead a couple of years to the replacement for the Rio.
He said: “The B-segment accounts for 35 per cent of the total car market and we only have a half of a per cent of that with Rio. It’s a car that is falling off people’s radar screens so the new model is going to be very important for us when it arrives in 2009.”
