World premiere: the Kia ex_cee'd cabrio concept
03/06/2007
Kia
Kia's exciting all-new ex_cee'd cabrio concept car makes its world premiere at the 77th Salon de l'Automobiles in Geneva. The styling of the ex_cee'd cabrio is the work of new Kia Design Chief Peter Schreyer and gives a first indication of the future direction the look of Kia-brand vehicles will be taking under his guidance.
The creation of ex_cee'd has taken five months since the recently appointed Schreyer's first day working for Kia. Inspired by the world premiere of the Kia cee'd at the Paris Show last October, he quickly sketched his ideas for a cabrio and brought the ex-cee'd to life on paper. The design was promptly approved by KMC and the creative process which led to its unveiling in Switzerland got underway.
Based on a pre-production prototype of the new three-door cee'd Sporty Hatch (scheduled for production in Slovakia from December), the ex_cee'd has the same 2650 mm wheelbase, but features all-new exterior panels, sharing only the floor-pan and unseen components with the donor car, plus a powered folding fabric roof.
Lower and wider than the five-door Kia cee'd (by 25 mm and 20 mm respectively), the new ex_cee'd cabrio concept delivers commanding proportions with short overhangs front and rear and a spacious interior for four people to enjoy open-air motoring plus all the comforts of a modern class-topping C-segment car.
By adopting a fabric roof, the ex_cee'd deliberately goes against the trend towards cabrios with folding metal roofs. Peter Schreyer paid special attention to designing a classic cabrio with a traditional soft-top roof: "I'm convinced that the fabric roof will have a renaissance. We've all lived with the romantic idea of open-air driving for a long time and for me, metal roofed cabrios are not truly in tune with this emotional conditioning."
Schreyer's views are endorsed by Kia car clinic research which has shown that a majority of cabrio buyers would welcome greater availability of fabric-roof models.
With its slight wedge shape profile, muscular extended wings over wide, 19-inch alloy wheels fitted with 265 section tyres, and aggressive, dynamic front styling, the ex_cee'd has instantly found a form that stands out from the cabrio crowd. The cabrio concept is finished in 'meringue white' exterior paint with a 'bitter chocolate' fabric roof - colours that are echoed by the interior's two-tone leather.
"With this new cabrio concept car, Kia has once again demonstrated that it is a young, style-conscious company that knows how to combine elegance with dynamics," enthused Mr Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice President and COO Kia Motors. "The Kia ex_cee'd is a fresh aesthetic high-point in our history, an encouraging sign of the growing internationalisation of our brand and a step in the process of evolving into a European company with Korean roots."