Why we'll never see the Kia ProCeed in Australia

The new-generation Kia ProCeed has been teased ahead of its October 2018 Paris motor show debut, but it’s got Buckley’s chance of coming to Australia.

Although Kia Australia imported a small quantity of the previous generation Kia Pro_cee’d GT hot hatch Down Under, to say that it didn’t sell very well would be putting it mildly.

Given that the brand’s new Cerato hatch is on its way as well, Kia Australia has no real need for a second small hatch.

Kevin Hepworth, media and corporate communications manager at Kia Australia told motoring.com.au: “At this stage we’ve got no plans for it. It’s for Europe only for now and given it’s made at the Slovakia plant, the logistics lines are quite extensive.”

Hepworth noted that the Australia importer will “never say never” and that “…if they have an automatic choice that changes the ground a little” but it’s not looking likely.

“It’s a beautiful looking car and it is a discussion point but we have no plans [to import ProCeed] at this stage. We haven’t gone into depth with it, it’s too new.”

The hot hatch version that’s expected to follow, the ProCeed GT is tipped to get an Hyundai i30N derived powertrain. And like its cooking model counterpart loses the ridiculous underscore in its name.

Alas it’s just as unlikely says Hepworth, despite Australian buyers’ appetite for high-performance machinery.

“ProCeed GT? It’s not really more likely. We only sold a few in the past, it was only manual and a hard sell. As nice as it was and as much as I’d like to see a new one, there’s no plans for it here.”

Kia’s press statement on the new ProCeed dubs it a “stunning design” with the “space and versatility of a tourer [wagon] in a five-door shooting brake body” which suggests the concept car will be a stretched hatchback.

The new model will be “Designed, developed, and engineered exclusively for Europe” says Kia, and calls the car a “unique proposition in the mid-size family car segment”.