Sister-brand of Hyundai creates a stylish estate for punters who aren’t into the SUV/crossover fad.
Ah, the poor man’s Shooting Brake…
Kia has recently become one of those few mass-market brands to break into new niches usually seen only in the premium car segment.
There was the funky-looking Soul that tried to be playful in appearance like in the Mini Countryman which eventually saw an all-electric version for buyers to choose from.
Moreover, Kia created a five-door fastback called Stinger GT with rear-wheel driving dynamics hoping to be a cut-price alternative to the BMW 4 Series GranCoupe.
And now there’s this all-new ProCeed, a sleek-looking estate for the C-segment that will make its world premiere in Paris next month in production-ready form after being previewed as a concept last year.
Just like you said, Kia is probably hoping to make the ProCeed as the poor man’s Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake.
And has it gone all-electric, as well?
No it hasn’t, but the engine platter offered for the European market is still diverse and makes those available in the Thai C-segment look low-tech and few in comparison.
The ProCeed comes with turbocharged, direct injected petrol engines developing anywhere between 120hp to 204hp.
And apart from the additional choice of diesel motors, all variants come with seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission driving the front wheels.
Sure, Kia has all-electric and plug-in hybrid know-how. But the time is probably not yet ripe to extend electrification to the ProCeed, which has the primary job of hunting down punters of a stylish estate who aren’t into the SUV/crossover fad.
Will Kia sell it in Thailand?
As you well know, Kia is small player in Thailand with no assembly facilities to slug it out with the established Japanese makers (the same goes for sister-brand Hyundai).
However, the Thai Kia office has been trying to make some ripples with the introduction of unique models like the two-door Cerato Koup and the aforementioned Soul and Stinger GT.
Whether the ProCeed will stir the senses of Kia’s local marketeers remains to be seen because all those earlier niche-breakers sold only in minute numbers.
But one thing’s for sure: Kia is showing the world that it wants to bring new ideas to the mass-market scene in countries where there isn’t a tax system biased toward locally made cars.
Should the ProCeed land on Thai shores in completely built-up form, its price would nudge 1.5 million baht.
