2014 Kia Pro Ceed

"The all-new Kia pro_cee'd is a true clean-sheet design," says Peter Schreyer, Kia's Chief Design Officer. "With its distinct form-language and dynamic proportions, muscular stance and athletic lines, this 'coupe' follows a very different visual path to the cee'd. It's a completely different car on every level."

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

The new pro_cee'd is Kia's most emotionally-charged car to date, a powerful looking hatch that drips performance and dynamism from every crease and curve. You know from just a single glance that this is a car that you want to drive down your favourite road.

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

"The first pro_cee'd surprised a lot of people," adds Gregory Guillaume, Kia's Chief Designer Europe. "We wanted to build on that elevated expectation with this new model and continue to surprise and delight Kia drivers. The new five-door cee'd takes on the emotional level of the outgoing pro_cee'd, so the role of the new pro_cee'd is to push forward, forge ahead."

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

When design work on the Kia pro_cee'd started 24 months ago, both Schreyer and Guillaume drew inspiration from the muscular and honed bodies of world-class athletes.

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

"We pictured a world-class sprinter crouched in the starting blocks," says Schreyer, "and our eyes were drawn to their bulging shoulder muscles, full of power and pace, ready to be unleashed. That's what we wanted to capture - all that performance potential, just waiting to be unleashed."

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

To create this hunkered-down stance, Kia's design team injected substantial amounts of visual muscle into the rear haunches, dramatically flaring the rear wings, and introducing a more acute angle to the rear windscreen and an integrated roof spoiler. "The roofline drops down to meet the shoulders in a taut line that effectively ties down the edge of the pro_cee'd's wedge-shaped profile," explains Schreyer.

2014 Kia Pro Ceed

The lowered roofline - the Kia pro_cee'd sits a full 40 mm lower than the five-door cee'd - and raised shoulder line has resulted in a significantly tighter glasshouse, and the resulting wedge-like profile is further enhanced by the bold lateral crease that runs its way across the car's flanks.

Those bold wheelarches are filled with eye-catching 17-inch multi-spoke lightweight alloy wheels, wrapped in sticky, low-profile tyres. A split twin-exhaust layout with large diameter outlet pipes lend further visual weight to the Kia pro_cee'd's performance potential.

"We wanted to give the pro_cee'd a really strong and dominant face, like that of an unbeaten champion boxer," says Guillaume. "Which is why we have given the car a far more aggressive front bumper with a deep and square chin."

The car also features a leaner and more assertive version of Kia's 'tiger' grille than that found on the cee'd. Framed in a dark silver metallic finish, it is linked to the headlamps to further emphasise the muscular width of the Kia pro_cee'd.

"Although the development of cars at Kia is fast paced, we took our time with the five-door cee'd. Looking takes time, you see. Sometimes you need to step back, step away and get some perspective. We knew that if we got the proportions and volumes of five-door cee'd right, everything else with the three-door Kia pro_cee'd would fall into place," explains Guillaume.

Despite its overt athleticism the Kia pro_cee'd shares its wheelbase and tracks with its five-door relative, which means versatility is uncompromised - both luggage capacity and rear space are virtually identical to those of the five-door cee'd.

"There's a muscular tension here," says Schreyer as he walks around the pro_cee'd. "It's a car that's ready to pounce forward. Kia is on a distinctive design adventure, and the pro_cee'd spearheads this forward-looking journey."

Articles Source : netcarshow