Kia Ceres Reviews

Kia has unveiled a new generation of a car that Australia will never see. The next-gen Kia XCeed is a compact SUV expected to arrive in Europe towards the end of the year.It is a jacked up version of the Ceed hatch, which is a rival to the Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Golf.The car has already been officially ruled out for Australia, with several issues at play for the European-focused SUV. XCeed is built in Kia’s Slovakia Factory, which makes it expensive for the brand to import to Australia.It is the same factory where the EV2 hatchback is being built, which Kia Australia is keen on brining to Australia if it can it at a competitive price.There are currently no European built models on sale in Australia.Unlike the EV2, the XCeed does not fit neatly into the brand’s lineup either, with it treading on the toes of the petrol-powered Stonic and the new hybrid-only Seltos.The EV2 remains the most likely European-built vehicle to come to Australia, but its feasibility for sale remains up in the air.In Europe, it costs the equivalent of $30,000, which would put it up against the Mazda CX-30 in Australia.The XCeed is available with petrol and mild hybrid power in Europe.These set-ups also mean the car is not ideal from a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) standpoint.NVES is something Kia has been paying increasing attention to, with the emissions regulations forming a key part of the brand’s product thinking in Australia. With the car a while away from an official launch, there are limited details available, currently.   On the inside, there is a 12.3-inch digital driver display and 12.3-inch central touchscreen, giving a car a revamped modern feel. Production on the new-generation XCeed will begin at the end of this month. 

Year-to-date registration data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) show ‘electrified’ passenger and light commercial vehicles have crossed a significant tipping point to become a more popular choice than traditional diesel and purely petrol-powered internal combustion engine (ICE) options in Australia.To the end of April, sales of battery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles stood at 50,976 units, a 79.2 per cent increase on the same four-month period in 2025 (28,448 units).At the same time, sales of ICE vehicles (including light commercials but not heavy trucks) have dropped 35.9 per cent from 64,991 in 2025 to 47,813 units this year.Tellingly, sales of pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have grown by just over 100 per cent, with key players BYD up 110.8 per cent (25,243 vs 11,974) and Tesla 49.9 per cent year-on-year (8485 vs 5660).Individual (higher volume) stand-out BEV models include the BYD Sealion 7 and Dolphin, Geely EX5, Kia EV3, Tesla Model Y and Toyota bZ4X.And when it comes to hybrids, thanks to better supply of the new-generation version, the ever-popular Toyota RAV4 has come up to its more usual monthly sales rate and has been joined by its big-brother LandCruiser 300 Hybrid.Add in other relatively recent hybrid arrivals like the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid joining now established disrupters like the BYD Shark 6 and GWM Cannon Alpha and hybrid sales are set to expand even further. Clearly, April 2024 marked a historical moment in time for the Aussie new vehicle market.

We know that Hyundai is working on a new dual-cab ute, with the brand confirming an in-house-developed workhorse model that will arrive before the end of the decade, both in the USA and in Australia.What we don’t know, or at least not entirely, is why.It’s long been Australian automotive lore that to be successful in Australia, a ute has to be a part of the line-up.Toyota, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen, Jeep – amongst others – have all heeded the call and found a dual-cab for their line-ups.But that was then and this is now.These days, the ute market is contracting. Mid-size SUVs are the vehicle of choice in our market again. Auto giant Toyota forecasts that the new normal won’t be changing again anytime soon.Then there’s the other pressure – China.Our market has never before been so flooded with affordable ute offerings from brands like BYD, GWM, JAC, Foton, LDV and MG. Chery will join the party shortly with its diesel plug-in hybrid.Despite the influx of new brands, fewer people overall are choosing utes. In fact, the segment has shed more than 2500 sales since the beginning of the year, compared with the first three months of 2025.Swollen segment, shrinking sales. Not a great combination.Whatever the reason, there’s no doubting the Kia Tasman hasn’t delivered the sales it was expecting to, though hopes are still high that it will eventually reach its lofty annual sales target of around 20,000 vehicles, with the help of a facelift, new powertrain options and a stronger focus on fleet customers.Other newcomer brands have fared even worse.What will the market look like in 2028 and beyond? Fuel prices won’t be going down, at least over long-term trending, that’s for sure. And customer tastes seem to already be trending in the opposite direction.  In the US, where the market is massive (though dominated by the Toyota Tacoma), and where Chinese brands so far don’t exist, is no doubt the global motivator, but the going in Australia could prove tougher than they might be expecting for the Korean giant.I have no doubt the Hyundai ute will be impressive. The Boulder concept unveiled in New York looks spectacular, and the brand has been on a tear of quality products of late.But it could be timing, not the product itself, that presents the biggest headwinds.

Kia’s new generation Seltos small SUV will use only hybrid power, putting it on a collision course with big name petrol-electric SUVs such as the Toyota Corolla Cross.The Seltos is one of Kia’s best-selling models in Australia, with only the Sportage SUV and the Carnival people mover better sellers for the brand.Kia Australia’s Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith said other brands have paved the way for a hybrid-only strategy. “We’re pretty confident the hybrid-only strategy is going to be ok,” Meredith said.“The Australian market is very open to hybrid for obvious reasons with what Toyota have been able to do.” Toyota has gone hybrid-only on many of its key models, including the RAV4 SUV and the Corolla hatchback. The move brings the Seltos into direct competition with other hybrid SUVs in the segment such as the Toyota Corolla Cross and Hyundai Kona.According to Kia Australia Product Planning Manager Raymond Pok, the emissions benefits hybrid power’s growing popularity were contributors to the switch-up. General Manager Marketing Dean Norbiato highlighted the impending fines on petrol models under the federal government's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).“You just have to look at the penalties for NVES on a petrol vehicle versus a hybrid vehicle," Norbiato said. “For us to be a sustainable OEM in this market, hybrid obviously makes sense from that standpoint.”Meredith said the brand is not concerned about losing potential sales on petrol Seltos.He said Kia is content with its current split of 40 per cent electric, 30 per cent hybrid and 30 per cent petrol. While the new generation Seltos will not have a petrol option, the brand will continue to offer other petrol options in its range.The likes of the budget hatch Picanto and the Stonic compact SUV, along with the K4 sedan will all remain petrol-only for the foreseeable future. 

The federal government has called time on its generous EV incentives.The Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption on electric cars will end by March 2029.Vehicles priced more than $75,000, but below the luxury car tax threshold of about $91,000, will no longer be eligible from April next year.Instead the more expensive EVs will have to pay 75 per cent of the FBT from that date, and all EVs will be slugged with the same tax rate from the 2029 end date.“The new rules will encourage manufacturers to offer more affordable and cheaper to run EVs in the Australian market,” said treasurer Jim Chalmers and energy minister Chris Bowen via The Guardian.“The current new vehicle efficiency standards have seen a dramatic increase in the availability of affordable EV models, so now is the right time to focus the FBT exemption on these cars.“We will continue to provide support for families who choose to switch to EVs as we transition to a permanent 25% discount on FBT for these cars.”This means top-selling EVs such as the Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7 and Kia EV5 will be covered until 2029.The move also encourages automakers to keep their vehicles priced below $75,000, which is a boon for Aussie electric vehicle shoppers.The tax break has been a huge hit, with the scheme costing more than 10 times what the government had forecasted. There were calls for the scheme to be axed to help alleviate the predicted budget deficit, and it is perceived to help a greater proportion of well-off Australians.National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association (NALSPA) CEO Rohan Martin said the continuation of the scheme shows the government is helping to ease pain at the bowser for motorists.“The EV Discount has already helped more than 100,000 Australians overcome the upfront cost barrier to switching to a cheaper‑to‑run vehicle. Without it, many outer‑suburban families, essential workers and cost‑conscious households simply wouldn’t be able to make the switch,” said Martin.This new timeline ties with the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which came into effect last year and comes to fruition in 2029.The NVES levels fines on vehicle manufacturers at a rate of $100 per gram of CO2 permitted over a certain threshold for every vehicle sold. The thresholds get lower every year until 2030.Carmakers can offset fines by selling EVs and plug-in hybrids and they can carry-over EV credits to offset sales of more polluting vehicles in following years.NVES has forced carmakers to bring in more fuel efficient vehicles with most manufacturers bringing in conventional hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in greater numbers since the fines started to bite last year.Electric vehicles sales skyrocketed in March, with about 15,000 EVs finding a new home, which was double the same month the previous year. This trend is expected to continue into April.Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith said he expected electric vehicle sales to settle into between 20 and 30 per cent of new car sales going forward. Previously EV sales had made up about 10 per cent of all new car registrations.

Kia has made a concerted effort to introduce electrified options to its line-up over the last few years. The brand has five fully electric models on sale in Australia, along with plug-less and plug-in hybrid family SUVs. This has seen Kia’s electric vehicle sales skyrocket, particularly in the last few weeks, with increased popularity for non-fuel-powered models.Subsequently, Kia’s sales split is now 70 per cent electrified (40% EV and 30% hybrid), with the remaining 30 per cent made up of pure petrol or diesel units. A primary driver of Kia’s electric shift has been the future impacts of the Australian federal government's National Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES). Under the scheme, vehicles sold which have an interim emissions value above zero incur a liability, while those which are zero or less, earn the brand a credit.According to Kia Australia Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith, NVES is an important part of the brand’s thinking on which cars to bring Down Under.“The government is going to stick to what they’ve put in place and it becomes part of the product planning decision,” Meredith told CarsGuide. “If you’ve got an EV range, you’re looking towards the future. “If you haven’t got an EV range, you’re catering to the customers' needs right now. “It’s one of the variables when we’re making decisions, put it like that.”The result of this EV focus for Kia is that it accumulated more than 720,000 units for the 2025 NVES performance period, the second-most of any brand, trailing only BYD.Meredith said Kia has no plans to sell its credits, banking them for a later time.The key to this success has been the combined performance of the EV3 and EV5 SUVs, which have continued to prove popular in 2026, with more than 2000 sales so far. Kia’s NVES approach has not been shared by some brands, such as Ford, which has been defiant in light of potential future penalties. Ford CEO Jim Farley said a market made up of vehicles being manufactured to meet NVES regulations is not sustainable, threatening to cut local engineering jobs. Ford is yet to feel the effects of future NVES liabilities, with key sales contributors such as the diesel Ranger ute being considered a ‘Type 2’ vehicle. Mazda is one brand which has been handed down a substantial amount of liabilities. More than 500,000, which is the most by some margin, given its high-volume petrol-based line-up.

The ute market has peaked in Australia, and some new and established workhorses could struggle.Kia Australia Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith said the ute market appears to have peaked, with a flat result in quarter one this year showing growth will be tough to find.That spells bad news for the Kia Tasman, which was launched last year with a sales target of 20,000 per year. It is on track to sell less than 5000 in 2026, which is a a far cry from the segment-leading Ford Ranger and strong-selling Toyota HiLux and BYD Shark 6.Meredith said “of course” they were concerned about the Tasman’s performance.When quizzed if the Tasman would be here in three years if sales didn’t improve, he simply said: “I believe so”.The Tasman ute has been critically acclaimed for how it performs its duties, but Meredith said there were several issues holding back the new ute.“I think once you’re inside it, it's fantastic,” said Meredith. “I think you know the exterior of the car is very polarising. Some people love it, some people don’t. And that’s had an effect.“I think you’ve got to be upfront and honest that the competition that’s out there is quite dramatic. “When we were planning this six years ago, the competition wasn’t as great as what it is right now.“So did we plan correctly? We planned as well as we possibly could, but the competition is hot, and there’s a polarising look to the vehicle,” he said.Kia is currently the third best-selling car brand in the nation this year, but it acknowledges it needs to do more to get the Tasman in more hands.“We’ve fallen short. We know the facts,” said Meredith.“What’s happening in the world over the last 35-40 days hasn’t helped. But we can’t use that, we can’t use anything as an excuse.“The fact of the matter is we’ve got to make Tasman a better success in Australia than it is at its current level,” said.A facelift to give the Tasman more conventional styling is still at more than a year or two away, according to CarsGuide’s previous reports, but there are other levers the brand can use.Kia is a volume seller, so some sharp discounts might be on offer for the dual-cab ute in the coming months to help stimulate demand and attract fleet buyers.Kia’s headquarters has been canvassing Australian owners on how to improve the product.The Korean brand also revealed plans for a plug-in hybrid dual-cab ute for the US market, which could be a possible replacement for the slow-selling Tasman.Meredith said they have their hand up for all types of powertrains in the brand’s global armoury."We're open to everything, but first and foremost we've got to make what we've got a success."

Kia has announced its new Seltos small SUV will ditch a pure petrol power in favour of a hybrid-only lineup for the new generation. It marks a significant change for one of the brand’s best-selling models in Australia, with it previously being a petrol-only model. The switch puts the Seltos into direct competition with hybrid variants of the Hyundai Kona as well as the hybrid-exclusive Toyota Corolla Cross. It will also take on budget offerings such as the Chery Tiggo 4 and the GWM Haval Jolion, which have hybrid choices, as well as petrol. The Seltos has been one of Kia's best-selling models and accumulated more than 9000 sales in 2025.There is no official news on price but it is likely to be a step up on the outgoing petrol variant’s starting price of $31,250 (before on-road costs).Based on South Korean pricing, it could even sit around the $40,000-plus bracket, especially for high-specification models.The brand has not yet revealed the set-up that will power the new Seltos in Australia. Overseas examples have a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine, which produces 105kW and 265Nm, so we can use this as a guide. The car will be available with front-wheel- or all-wheel-drive. The brand stated its move to hybrid only has been directed by the need to meet Euro 6d standards and also to stay within New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) emissions regulations in Australia.There will still be a petrol variant of the car sold elsewhere in the world, but we will not see it Down Under.  One of the other major changes to the next-generation Seltos is that the car has grown in every dimension but height, where it has shrunk slightly. This has increased headroom and legroom in the car as well as rear storage space, which is now at 483L.Elsewhere inside, there is a single panel of a central touchscreen, digital driver display and climate control screen spanning much of the dashboard. The Seltos is expected to launch in Australia in the fourth quarter of this year, with further details, including price to be announced closer to then. 

Kia has revealed a hybrid version Kia K4 hatch to complement the strong-selling petrol variants remains part of the brand's plans in Australia. The K4 hybrid appears to still be on target for a launch Down Under this year, but timing has not been confirmed, according to local Product Planning Manager Raymond Pok. “We launched with just the petrol variants and we’re pretty keen to get a hybrid as quickly as we can,” Pok told CarsGuide.  “It’s still in the plans, but timing is to be confirmed.” The K4 is a competitive seller in the small car segment, only trailing the Toyota Corolla. It has amassed more sales in 2026 than the hugely popular Hyundai i30 and Mazda3, turning around a deficit to those rivals last year. Currently the K4 is only available with petrol engines.Most of the range comes with a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre unit, with top-spec GT-line models getting a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine.  The hybrid starts from $32,090 (before on-road costs) and comes in hatch or sedan body shapes.Expect the hybrid K4 to have a slight bump on price compared to the petrol version when it finally gets to Australia. There are no confirmed details yet on what the hybrid set-up will look like, but there is a good chance it will be a version of the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol electric motor unit found in other Kia hybrid cars and the mechanically similar Hyundai i30 sedan.This means it's in line for a 1.6-litre petrol engine paired with an electric motor, which combines for 104kW and 265Nm. Fuel use in the similar Hyundai i30 sedan is just 3.9L/100km. Kia Australia Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith revealed 30 per cent of all the brand’s sales at the moment are coming from hybrid models. The K4’s petrol-only lineup could pose problems down the line, with the brand conscious of potential fines leveled at the maker because of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) . “You just have to look at the penalties for NVES on a petrol vehicle versus a hybrid vehicle,” General Manager Marketing for Kia Australia Dean Norbiato said. “For us to be a sustainable OEM in this market, hybrid obviously makes sense from that standpoint.”

Kia has poured cold water on the prospects of its EV2 budget electric SUV making it to Australia. The EV2 was unveiled at the start of this year at the Brussels Motor Show and it was expected to hit Australia in the second quarter. It was also poised to carry the important tag of the brand’s cheapest fully electric vehicle on sale in Australia. It now looks the brand has backtracked on its prospects to bring in the EV2, with question marks over its competitiveness in Australia. The brand remains keen to bring in the EV2 if the numbers line up so it is not completely off the cards yet. “It has been in our product plan, there is no question about that,” Kia Australia Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith said.“The reality is we’re still working it out.“If we can, we will, but there are some things that are compounding that are going to make it difficult.”The EV2 lines up as a rival to other small electric vehicles, which often sit at the budget end of a carmaker’s line-up. This includes the BYD Dolphin, MG4 and the outgoing GWM Ora, which have price tags under $40K.The EV2 would also have to be priced less than one of Kia's best-selling electric cars, the EV3, which starts from $47,600 (before on-road costs). This necessary price competitiveness raises complications for the EV2 to launch in Australia, given it is manufactured in Europe. The cost of transporting vehicles from Europe to Australia adds significantly to the price. This has been a major roadblock for brands looking to bring budget-targeting cars from Europe. Costs are further blown out by the fact imported vehicles are subject to import duty and goods and services taxes, all raising the price further.This means EV2 may not be offered at the price it needs to be, according to Kia. “You’re not going to bring a product that’s not competitive for its segment in market and we need to make sure that it is to bring it in,” Kia Australia’s General Manager Marketing Dean Norbiato told CarsGuide.