Production of the all-new cee’d Sportswagon has begun at the Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia plant in Zilina, becoming the second new model to be built at the facility this year. Demand for the new cee’d Sportswagon, previously known as the cee’d SW, is expected to boost production at Zilina to 285,000 vehicles in 2012. The previous generation cee’d SW represented more than a fifth of the site’s overall production.
This year Zilina has produced 167,000 vehicles and 266,000 engines in the first seven months, recording 11 per cent and 52 per cent year-on-year increases respectively.
“The cee’d Sportswagon is an important addition to the Kia range in Europe and we have been preparing for its production throughout 2012. We are confident that the Sportswagon will prove very popular with European customers and help the Zilina plant in meeting its production target,” said Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia.
Like the new cee’d 5-door, introduced earlier this year, the new Sportswagon combines a sophisticated exterior design with high-quality interior materials and class-leading levels of refinement, while offering a selection of two petrol and two diesel CRDi engines across Europe. The Sportswagon also offers impressive practicality, boasting a load space of 528 litres with the rear seats upright and 1,642 litres with the rear seats folded.
Kia’s Zilina manufacturing facility is also preparing for the launch of the new three-door pro_cee’d, which will begin production in early 2013. The all-new cee’d Sportswagon will arrive in UK showrooms during September, other European countries during October.
