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Kia Motors has revealed the first image of its latest concept car that is scheduled to debut at the Paris Motor Show next week. The strikingly styled concept, named pro_cee’d, is based on the forthcoming three-door sporty hatch version of the all-new Kia cee’d.

This five-door family hatchback has its world premiere (in production-ready form) at Paris and will be manufactured at Kia’s European assembly plant in Slovakia from November 2006.

Gregory Guillaume, Chief Designer Kia at European Design Centre commented, “Following on from the original cee’d concept, our design brief for pro_cee’d was to create a teaser for the all-new cee’d sports hatch which will become the third model in the cee’d line-up.”

The pro_cee’d has kept the family resemblance to cee’d with its dynamic and muscular appearance. Key attributes which the pro_cee’d and cee’d models will have in common include the lowered roof line and shallower side windows edged with chrome trim that creates a robust and sporty window graphic.

The pro_cee’d interior is designed to accommodate four people in sporty bucket-styled seats and is trimmed to give a strong feeling of performance.

The three recessed dials of the instrument panel have separate metal cowlings set beneath a top cowling that appears to float above the dashboard. The dense matt black trim of the upper dashboard continues around the upper sides of the cab. The lower panels are trimmed in special ‘Pilot Brown’ distressed leather, the quality of an old flying jacket – “leather with a history and a story to tell…” as Guillaume enthuses.

“Like the five-door cee’d, which has its world premiere at Paris, the pro_cee’d will be a truly European product, designed and made in Europe. But whereas the five-door is a great handling family car, this version of cee’d will be targeting younger drivers in search of a more overtly sporty look to go with the sporty drive,” observed Guillaume.