Kia drops mega photo gallery of 2012 Cee’d hatchback

Only a few weeks after its world premiere at the 2012 Geneva motor show, Kia is offering us a new gallery of pictures of its second generation Cee’d hatchback as the South Korean automaker gets ready to launch the five-door model across Europe towards the end of spring or early in the summer, depending on the market. Perceived as Kia’s most serious effort to gain foot in Europe’s highly popular C-segment with rivals such as the VW Golf and Ford Focus, the brand-new Cee’d combines a more youthful and dynamic exterior with a higher quality and more upmarket looking interior. The Cee’d shares its underpinnings and engine range with the also new Hyundai i30, which will be launched in North America as the Elantra GT. Engine options include a 1.4-liter petrol delivering 89hp (90PS), a 1.6-liter petrol with 128hp (130PS), and two diesels, a 1.4-liter unit producing 89hp (90PS) and a 1.6-liter with up to 126hp (128PS). All powerplants will be offered with a choice of manual or automatic six-speed transmissions, while the 1.6-liter GDI petrol will also be optionally available with Kia’s six-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT).