Will it be third time lucky for Kia’s Europe-only hatchback – or are established rivals from Ford, VW, Seat and Honda still the better buy?
Were it not for car buyers’ gluttonous appetite for SUVs, C-segment hatchbacks would continue to dominate the roadscape, with a high likelihood that the third-generation Kia Ceed would be among the class’s best-sellers. Few statements of intent are as bold as a car maker from another continent setting up a European factory to build a model aimed right at the heartland of local manufacturers’ dominance, but that’s exactly what Kia did with its Mk1 Ceed — or, more accurately, Cee’d. Wisely, the apostrophe’s been dropped for the model’s current iteration. As consumer tastes morphed, demanding the greater levels of perceived practicality and safety associated with SUVs, it was the Kia Sportage — built alongside the Ceed in Slovakia — that took on that talismanic mantle. Not only that, as part of the Hyundai Motor Group, the firm’s made enormous strides in bringing a wide range of fully and partly electrified models to market, including the Kia Niro and more recently, the Kia EV3. It’s rather telling, then, that today’s Ceed range is limited to a single petrol engine with no degree of hybridisation whatsoever. Sure, mild-hybrid diesels were once part of the line-up and there was a PHEV option for the Sportswagon estate, but today the Ceed seems less important to its maker. Perhaps that’s not altogether surprising given how well Kia’s performing in other areas — profitability doesn’t equate to an infinite level of financial and engineering resources. Plus, while some familiar C-segment names, such as the Peugeot 308, Toyota Corolla, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Golf continue to sell in strong numbers, they’re all available with electrified powertrains. Others have already left the compact family hatch market altogether or are on verge of doing so, the Ford Focus being the most notable. It may have fallen short of being the prestigious European sales success it was devised to be, but that doesn’t mean the Kia Ceed lacks appeal for customers shunning SUVs and electrification.
