A showroom-ready Kia Cee’d has become the first car run off the production line at the manufacturer’s factory in Zilina, Slovakia. Built at a cost of €3 billion, the new plant aims to produce 300,000 vehicles a year by 2009.

At the signing-off ceremony, Jean-Charles Lievens, senior vice-president of Kia Motors Europe, said: ‘This is an historic day for Kia Motors. It is a milestone in our development and underlines our company slogan – ‘the power to surprise’.