Kia has revealed the first pre-production picture of its new sporty hatch car, which will debut at the Paris Motor Show next week.

The South Korean manufacturer has been keeping details of the new car close to its chest in the lead up to the show. Only this rear view picture of the ‘pro_cee’d’ was released, however, it clearly shows the design style for the new model is a departure from the current model line-up.

The new car, yet to be named, will be manufactured at Kia’s European assembly plant in Slovakia in November.

Gregory Guillaume, chief designer for Kia at its European design centre, said: "Following on from the original cee’d concept, our design brief for pro_cee’d was to create a teaser for the new cee’d sports hatch which will become the third model in the cee’d line-up."