Kia’s first sporty hatchback, the pro_cee’d GT, goes on sale next week but already the company’s UK operation is clamouring for similar performance and styling upgrades to be applied to other models in the range.
A GT version of the five-door cee’d will be added at the start of 2014, but UK bosses are convinced that a full line-up of more performance-oriented models would help them maintain the momentum which has produced five straight years of record sales.
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Top of their wish-list is a GT version of the Sportage crossover, which is now Kia’s best-selling model in Britain, but they believe sporty versions of the Rio and Picanto would also go down well. UK chiefs think there is a good chance of a performance version of the Sportage appearing in a couple of years or so.
Performance models are relatively low-volume sellers – Kia is expecting to sell between 500 and 750 pro_cee’d GTs in the UK in a full year – but they have an important halo effect on the mainstream cars they are based on. In Kia’s case they would also help to elevate public perception of the brand.
Kia sold 66,000 cars in the UK in 2012 and is on course to top 70,000 this year – the total for the first half is expected to be around 37,000. But with only one all-new car to come between now and 2015 – a replacement for the Soul early next year – additional sporty derivatives would give a sales boost to the current range.
“The pro_cee’d GT was driven by demand from Europe and with its arrival we are moving on to the next chapter in our history,” said UK president and CEO, Paul Philpott. “In Europe, brands like ours are defined by their C-segment cars, and we now have a model which adds excitement to the range. We took it to Motorexpo in London last week and spent the whole day taking city bankers for test drives.”
There will be two versions of the pro_cee’d, priced from GBP19,995, plus a limited run of 500 high-specification ‘1st Edition’ models at GBP23,995. Only 50 of these are coming to the UK.
