Our European photographers snapped this new Korean car in the Swiss Alps a few days ago but admittedly had no clue as to what the car could actually be.
The registration and camouflage clearly said “Hyundai” or “Kia” – but which model?
Not to worry – we found out at last! A former Hyundai designer told us this:
“I’m actually fairly certain that this isn’t the next [Kia] Picanto. It’s hard to tell scale from the pictures, but the car looks to upmarket to be a Picanto. It seems to have a panorama roof plus five-lug wheels that Kia or Hyundai never use on vehicles that small!”
In regard to the size I’d say it’s the Hyundai SO of which a concept will be shown at the Paris show and which is a C-segment small MPV for Europe replacing the Matrix. But the camouflage and grille speak for Kia rather than Hyundai, so I reckon it’s the Kia version of the SO. I don’t know anything about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Kia was developing such a car given the segment’s popularity in Europe.”
We agree and believe the car is going to be a competitor to the Volkswagen Golf Plus (currently not available in Australia), probably using the Cee’d name – so for now, we will call it the Cee’d plus.
