Kia is poised to take on the Volkswagen Golf with a striking new petrol-powered hatchback aimed at global markets – and an eventual European launch could be on the cards.

The new Kia K4 will be offered in North America, Asia and the Middle East as a Skoda Octavia-style liftback as well as a traditional five-door hatch. Kia provides a choice of atmospheric 147bhp 2.0-litre or turbocharged 190bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines. 

The five-door hatchback has now been spotted testing near Kia’s engineering centre in Russelsheim, Germany. Although a spokesperson for Kia UK told Autocar that this does not mean the car is poised to go on sale in Europe – and that there are no such plans at present – there are signs of its viability in this market.

The similarly positioned Ceed continues to sell well in Europe despite being an older car than many of its rivals, having been launched in 2018. The hatchback, high-riding Xceed and Proceed have so far this year combined sales of 60,478, according to figures from Jato Dynamics.

That puts the model on a par with some of its most prominent rivals, including the soon-to-depart Ford Focus (47,582 sales), the Peugeot 308 (51,656) and the Toyota Corolla (70,701).

This suggests the Ceed remains a viable product despite the market’s broader shift toward SUVs. The larger Kia Sportage achieved 87,164 sales over the same period.

Assuming a typical product cycle of eight years, the Ceed is due for replacement around 2026. However, Kia has yet to announce any plans for a next generation, which suggests it could look to other models in its portfolio to fill that gap.

The new EV3 is in effect an electric successor to the Ceed, with similar proportions – 4.3m long and 1.8m wide – and a five-door body.

But given that the growth of EV sales in Europe has fallen short of many manufacturers’ expectations, it is possible that Kia would need a combustion-engined model to plug a Ceed-sized hole in its line-up until demand for EVs catches up with previous forecasts. That could provide the business case for importing the K4, which is built in Mexico.

Kia recently committed to adding more hybrid cars to its line-ups across the globe “to manage fluctuation in EV demand”, reinforcing the case for a combustion-engined Ceed successor. Although the K4 does not yet offer a hybrid powertrain, it could be among the nine new cars set to gain one by 2028 "across most major model lines globally".

Meanwhile, the Ceed’s factory in Žilina, Slovakia, will begin a gradual transition to producing new electric models. Kia has already confirmed that the EV2, the £25,000 spearhead of its plan to sell 1.6 million EVs annually by 2030, will be built at the plant.

Žilina has a total capacity of 350,000 cars per year. Should the EV2 prove as successful as forecast, it could in turn be forced to divert capacity away from the Ceed – bolstering the case for importing the K4 in its place.