It is the first Kia vehicle to be designed entirely in Europe and tailored to European customers. To mark the occasion, Kia took the initials of the European Economic Community, EEC or CEE in several languages and added ED for European Design. Realizing that "CEEED" had too many ‘E's, they replaced the last 'E' with an apostrophe, with 'Cee'd' being the end result. Since 2018, the Ceed name does not include an apostrophe. The initials now mean "Community of Europe, with European Design". The model has been manufactured at the Kia Motors Slovakia assembly plant in Žilina since December 2006. The Ceed replaced the Cerato which had little success in Europe, and is positioned between the Rio supermini (B-segment) and the Optima mid-size car (D-segment).