Will Kia Pro Cee’d With A Hybrid Car?
Nearly 300 web pages make up the Kia.com website, and not one of them includes any mention of a hybrid car. With a little luck, that could change in the next year or two as the Korean auto manufacturer has been developing and testing their first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle in Europe.
Based on the popular European five door “Cee’d” hatchback, Kia officially debuted the concept hybrid Cee’d at the Paris Auto Show (Fall, 2008). Alongside the green Cee’d (pronounced Seed) was also a concept hybrid Kia Soul. You can see both of these future hybrids in the following video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQg8Y4kO1g
From what we could gather, this would be a mild hybrid, meaning the electric motor could add power but not power the vehicle on its own. It would also get the ISG system (Idle Stop and Go), saving fuel by turning the engine off when stopped. The folks at carmagazine.co.uk took this concept for a spin, so you can read their review here.
We could learn more about the hybrid cee’d as early as tomorrow or later this week, as the International Geneva Motor Show gets under way. From a recent press release issued by Kia:
Kia Motors has produced a fleet of prototype Kia cee’d Hybrid cars especially for testing and evaluation in Europe. The cee’d Hybrid being shown in Geneva uses an upgraded powertrain with Kia’s Gamma 1.6-litre gasoline engine, mated to a 15 kW, 105 Nm AC synchronized electric motor, a CVT transmission and the new ISG (Idle Stop & Go) system. Kia calculates that the cee’d Hybrid accelerates to 100 kph in 11.8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 185 kph. The prototype is estimated to achieve fuel consumption of 4.81 liters per 100 km and a CO2 figure of 109 g/km – down 25% compared to the standard 1.6-litre gasoline cee’d.
As more announcements are made, we will update you here.
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