2018 Kia Ceed teased ahead of Geneva world premiere

Next month’s Geneva Motor Show will see the world premiere of the new Kia Ceed, and after doggedly sticking to lowercase letters and an apostrophe in its name for two generations, the family hatchback will finally have a relatively normal name.

That’s not to say that it will be a more boring car to look at, however – the teaser sketch provided shows a car with a more dynamic look, borrowing more than a few cues from the sporty Stinger. There are sweptback headlights with four-dot daytime running lights flanking a slim “tiger nose” grille, while a trio of air intakes feature underneath. It’s a look that’s shared with the recently-unveiled Forte/Cerato.

Of course, we’ve already seen the Ceed completely undisguised before – the car will have a longer bonnet (giving the car less of an MPV-like monobox look), a simpler side window graphic, slim trapezoidal tail lights and a number plate recess that has been moved from the bumper to the tailgate.

The five-door hatch will form part of a revised Ceed range, which will ditch the pro_cee’d three-door model. That name, again without the weird punctuations, will instead be used on a low-slung shooting brake previewed by the Proceed Concept, sitting alongside the more traditional Sportswagon. There will also be a crossover model, following in the footsteps of the Picanto X-Line, plus a hot GT model.

Expect the Ceed to soldier on with updated Euro 6-compliant versions of the existing 1.0 litre turbocharged three-cylinder, 1.6 litre direct-injected four-cylinder and 1.4 litre MPI petrol engines, alongside 1.4 and 1.6 litre CRDi turbodiesels.

GALLERY: Kia Proceed Concept