Kia Ceed Sportswagon 1.6 GDi PHEV 2020 UK first drive

This is the plug-in hybrid version of Kia’s venerable Ceed Sportswagon. Along with the newly introduced Xceed PHEV, it’s the first variant in the now quite expansive Ceed family to feature both a plug socket and a petrol motor. A plug-in version of the regular hatch is expected to arrive later this year, too, and perhaps there’ll be a Kia Proceed PHEV at some point as well. But for now, this is it.

The Ceed Sportswagon PHEV uses the same powertrain as the already established Kia Niro PHEV. So there’s a small, normally aspirated 1.6-litre four-pot mated to a 79bhp electric motor to drive the front wheels. An 8.9kWh lithium ion battery is in the mix, too, giving the plug-in Ceed the ability to travel up to 35 miles on electricity alone. Hook it up to a 3kW home charger and you’ll be able to top it up in around two and a quarter hours.

The Ceed Sportswagon PHEV is available in just one trim, which in the UK is the £29,995 ‘3’ specification. Covid-19 complications meant that our test car was a European-spec left-hooker, but it was nonetheless representative of the car you’d actually buy here in Britain.

There’s loads of kit as standard, such as satellite navigation, heated seats, 17in alloy wheels and dual-zone climate control. A comprehensive array of active safety systems is included, too, as is Kia’s latest UVO Connect infotainment suite, which uses its own eSIM chip to let you know where things like public charge points and parking spaces are. True to Kia form, the only option you really need to decide on is which colour you want.

Impressively grown-up and well rounded in some ways, and less impressive in others. But let’s start with the positives. It rides in a tidy fashion thanks to its MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear suspension, with decent vertical body control and good resistance to ruts and bumps and the like. Motorways, country lanes and inner city streets - it handles them all with relatively little fuss or bother.

It handles sweetly enough, too, with good front-end response and more than enough grip in day-to-day driving. Although there is a slightly fake-feeling sense of weight about the wheel as you add lock, the steering is nonetheless accurate. Body roll becomes a bit more pronounced as you pick up speed, but you’d never say the Ceed feels loose or wayward. It lacks the zest and some of the poise you’d get in a Ford Focus, sure, although many will probably like it for its slightly more no-frills approach to getting down a road.