Kia officially reveals its sporty compact C-SUV, the XCeed

KUALA LUMPUR: Kia has been teasing us with its upcoming C-SUV for a while now, and the South Korean automaker has finally revealed the car. The said car is a part of the European C-segment Ceed lineup that includes Ceed Sportwagon, Ceed five-door hatchback, and ProCeed five-door shooting brake.

According to Kia, the XCeed is a ‘sporty alternative to the traditional SUVs’. The car is a perfect combination of SUV practicality and engaging handling and sporty packaging of a hatch. For a better idea, of what exactly is this urban utility vehicle think of cars like the Volvo V40 Cross Country, and Subaru XV.

Emilio Herrera, COO of Kia Motors Europe explaining the XCeed said, “The XCeed addresses the growing desire for cars which offer more emotion and dynamism than an SUV, both in terms of the way a car looks and drives. Yet these customers don’t want to lose the practicality that a larger car offers them. Our new CUV meets these needs. Merging the strengths of both hatchback and SUV, the XCeed offers something refreshing and different for European consumers,”

The car has been designed at the brand’s European design centre located in Frankfurt. It carries a unique layout, in fact, the top hat is said to be 100 percent original with only the front doors shared with the five-door hatch sibling.

Like all the cars under the Creed range, the wheelbase here also remains standard at 2,650 mm. However, the front and rear overhangs are stretched compared to the hatchback by 25 mm and 60 mm, respectively. Also, the car is 26 mm wider than the Ceed five-door hatch version. As for the ground clearance, it rests at 174 mm for 16-inch wheels and goes up to 184 mm with 18-inch wheels.

Compared to the rest of the Ceed range, the XCeed compact SUV gets a rather differentiating design. At the front, it gets a prominent grille, large lower air intakes, new ‘ice cube’ LED signature headlamps, and slim turn signals.

The car is offered with 12 exterior color choices with the new Quantum Yellow splash (visible in the pictures) exclusive to the XCeed SUV in the Ceed range.

Open the gates, and a plush and sporty looking cabin will greet you. The XCeed offers a sportier driving position thanks to the raised ground clearance over the hatch. Exclusive to the C-SUV is a new Yellow pack with black upholstery and contrasting vibrant yellow highlights all over the cabin, in the form of seat piping, stitching, and more.

Kia XCeed is offered in three T-GDi turbocharged petrol and two diesel engine options. As for the former, there is a 120 PS/172 Nm 1.0-litre, a 140 PS/242 Nm 1.4-litre unit, and lastly, a 1.6-litre unit offering 204 PS and 265 Nm. On the diesel front, there are two Smartstream mills; the 1.6-litre mill comes with either 115 PS or 136 PS configuration.

By the year 2020, Kia would include an electrified powerplant in XCeed’s range. Production of the said car would begin from August in Slovakia, and the deliveries will commence in Q3 of 2019.