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Tag: KIA Motors

  • Kia makes Indian debut at auto expo

    Kia Motors India (KMI) will make its Indian market debut at the Auto Expo 2018 in New Delhi with a new concept car.

    Kia will unveil the SP Concept at the New Delhi Motor Show on Wednesday alongside a showcase of 16 of the brand’s global models.

    Inspired by Indian heritage and driven by advanced technology, the Kia SP Concept hints at the company’s plans to introduce a new SUV to the Indian market in future. Bold and stylish, the SP Concept combines sophisticated beauty, breakthrough technology, and high functionality in a small SUV form.

    Alongside the global debut for the SP Concept, Kia will showcase its global range of cars at Auto Expo. Kia will exhibit its wide range of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and a range of other cars – including the exciting new Stinger sports sedan. The compnany is looking to replicate its global success in India, the world’s fastest growing car market.

    President of Kia Motors Corporation Han-Woo Park said: “All of us at Kia Motors are extremely proud to take our first steps into one of world’s largest automotive markets. And we are here to build more than just great cars. We aim to set a new standard in the Indian auto industry by providing consumers with world-class products and services, while engaging with and giving back to the local community.”

    Kia’s award-winning products are now among the most popular cars on sale across the world today, gaining praise for attractive design, high-tech features, and reliability. The company’s distinctive design identity, including its hallmark ‘tiger-nose’ grille, runs through the brand’s entire vehicle line-up, making the brand’s cars immediately recognisable all over the world.

     

  • Kia Motors to build manufacturing plant in India

    Kia Motors to build manufacturing plant in India

    Kia Motors has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, India to build a new manufacturing facility in Anantapur District.
    The MoU was signed last week in the city of Vijayawada, a part of Andhra Pradesh Capital Region, attended by executives from Kia Motors and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
    Construction of the new manufacturing facility, Kia Motors’ first in India and representing approximately a US$1.1 billion investment will begin in the final quarter of the year.
    The manufacturing facility is expected to begin production in the second half of 2019 and produce up to approximately 300,000 units each year.
    Kia plans to produce a strategic compact sedan and compact SUV especially for the Indian market at the new plant, which will occupy around 23 million square feet (2.16 km2 / 536 acres) and incorporate facilities for stamping, welding, painting and assembly. The site will also be home to numerous supplier companies’ facilities.
    Kia Motors President Han-Woo Park said: “We are delighted to announce that Kia’s newest manufacturing facility will be here in Andhra Pradesh. Our new India plant will enable us to sell cars in the world’s fifth largest market, while providing greater flexibility for our global business. Worldwide demand for Kia cars is growing and this is our latest step towards becoming a leading global car manufacturer.”
    The India facility will enable Kia to maintain its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing automobile brands. The new facility in Anantapur will enable the company to start selling its models in India, and benefit from further sustainable sales growth, locally and internationally.
    Kia plans to commence local sales of cars produced at the new facility towards the end of 2019, once mass production begins in Anantapur.
    India is the fastest growing major new car market and the fifth largest in the world, with more than 3.3 million new cars sold in 2016. Forecasts suggest the country will become the third-largest car market by the end of 2020.

  • Kia Motors donates 110 vehicles to Australian Open

    Kia Motors donates 110 vehicles to Australian Open

    As the major sponsor of Australian Open 2017, Kia Motors handed over a fleet of 110 official tournament vehicles to Tennis Australia during a ceremony in Melbourne attended by executives from Kia Motors Australia and Tennis Australia, as well as Kia’s global brand ambassador and former Australian Open champion, Rafael Nadal. This year celebrates Kia’s 16th consecutive sponsorship of the Australian Open, and Kia will roll out various on- and off-line programs for tennis fans around the world.

    “We are delighted once again to accept the fleet of Kia vehicles to help keep the Australian Open moving smoothly over the next few weeks, connecting visiting fans from around the world to the biggest annual sporting event in January,” Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley, said, adding: “It’s a huge logistical exercise to move all our players, officials, media and staff around Melbourne during the tournament and every year this is achieved thanks to Kia’s reliability and support.”

    This year’s fleet of vehicles, including 50 Carnival MPVs, 40 Sorento CUVs and 20 Optima mid-size sedans, will ensure smooth and safe transportation for Australian Open 2017 by transporting players, officials and VIPs to and from matches and other activities throughout the year’s first Grand Slam tournament.

    Tennis superstar and Kia global brand ambassador Rafael Nadal joined the ceremony as he handed over the ceremonial key to fleet to Tennis Australia.

    Over the past 15 years, Kia’s courtesy fleet has clocked up close to five million kilometers in tens of thousands of journeys carrying champions and journeymen alike in comfort and safety.

    This year the Kia courtesy fleet will be continue that tradition, driven by more than 200 volunteer drivers who expect to clock up more than 400,000 kilometers in thousands of journeys shuttling players, officials, media and fans during Australian Open 2017.

    “The Australian Open is Kia’s longest running major sports sponsorship, and as a proud sponsor we’re delighted to be a driving force behind the growth of the tournament, not only by providing safe, stylish and comfortable transportation for players and participants, but also by engaging with tennis fans worldwide with various on & off-line campaigns to share the excitement we are about to witness over next few weeks,” said Bryan Cho, Vice President of the Overseas Marketing Group at Kia Motors Corporation.

  • Skye Bank, KIA Motors sign auto finance pact

    Skye Bank, KIA Motors sign auto finance pact

    Skye Bank Plc and Kia Motors have signed a strategic auto finance agreement to enable customers of Skye Bank, who wish to purchase brand new Kia vehicles, do so without difficulty. The arrangement covers Kia models like Picanto, Rio, Cerrato, Optima and Sportage.

    Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony in Lagos, Head, Retail Banking Group, Skye Bank Plc., Nkolika Okoli, said Skye Bank, as a retail focused bank, is always on the lookout for ways to add value to its customers and the partnership is to provide avenue for customers to easily acquire brand new cars.

    Okoli said, Kia brand is one of the fastest growing brands in Nigeria’s automobile industry today and she described Kia cars as very popular to average Nigerians. She also said that Kia spare parts and Kia service centers are readily available across the country, thereby offering convenience to the teeming car owners.

    Speaking on “who is eligible?”, Okoli said, salary earners and business owners can acquire cars under the partnership with down payment as low as 20 per cent of the total cost of the car. So, rather than opt for fairly used cars popularly called ‘Tokunbo’ in local parlance,  customers are encouraged to provide 20% equity contribution for a brand new car while the balance can be repaid over a four year period. Okoli also noted that there is no need for salary domiciliation for salary earners; they can meet monthly repayment using post-dated cheques.

    Also speaking at the event, Kia Motors’ Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Sandeep Malhotra, described the partnership as an important one given Skye Bank’s customer centric orientation. Malhotra said the partnership would make ownership of Kia cars very easy, cheap and affordable for anybody with a regular source of income who ordinarily may not have the required money to pay for the car at once.

    He listed the benefits accruable to customers who buy Kia cars under the special arrangement to include free first three services, discounted prices, free delivery, five year warranty and free vehicle tracker.

  • Skye Bank, KIA Motors sign auto finance pact

    Skye Bank, KIA Motors sign auto finance pact

    Skye Bank Plc and Kia Motors have signed a strategic auto finance agreement to enable customers of Skye Bank who wish to purchase brand new Kia vehicles do so without difficulty. The arrangement covers Kia models like Picanto, Rio, Cerrato, Optima and Sportage.

    Speaking at the agreement signing in Lagos, Head, Retail Banking Group, Skye Bank Plc., Nkolika Okoli, said Skye Bank, as a retail focused bank, is always on the lookout for ways to add value to its customers and the partnership is to provide avenue for customers to easily acquire brand new cars.

    Okoli said Kia brand is one of the fastest growing brands in Nigeria’s automobile industry today and she described Kia cars as very popular to average Nigerians. She also said that Kia spare parts and Kia service centres are readily available across the country, thereby offering convenience to the teeming car owners.

    On “who is eligible?”, Okoli said, salary earners and business owners can acquire cars under the partnership with down payment as low as 20 per cent of the total cost of the car. So, rather than opt for fairly used cars popularly called ‘Tokunbo’ in local parlance,  customers are encouraged to provide 20  per cent equity contribution for a brand new car while the balance can be repaid over a four year period. Okoli also noted that there is no need for salary domiciliation for salary earners; they can meet monthly repayment using post-dated cheques.

    Kia Motors’ Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Sandeep Malhotra, described the partnership as an important one given Skye Bank’s customer centric orientation.

     

  • Kia Motors sold 230,227 vehicles in July

    Kia Motors Corporation announced its July 2015 global sales figures (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) for passenger cars, recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles, recording a total of 230,227 units sold.

    In July, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in the domestic Korean market (13.9 per cent growth with 48,202 units sold) and North America (5.8 per cent growth with 62,013 units sold).

    Cumulatively through the first seven months of 2015, Kia’s global sales totalled 1,667,575 units for a -0.9 per cent year-on-year decrease. Korea (290,784 units sold) and North America (408,750 units sold) have seen an 11.4 per cent and 4.0 per cent rise in sales, respectively, through July 2015.

    Kia’s bestselling model in overseas markets during July 2015 was the B-segment Rio (known as ‘K2’ in China) with 38,500 units sold. The Sportage compact CUV was the second best seller with 28,993 units sold, while the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ or ‘K3’ in some markets), Optima D-segment sedan and Soul urban crossover followed with 22,691, 20,325 and 18,760 units sold, respectively.

    Meanwhile, Kia kicked off official retail sales in Mexico in July with 1,499 units sold through its initial network of 21 dealerships. This figure is more than double the previous sales mark achieved by any other automaker in its first month of sales in the country, according to data from Urban Science, a company specialising in data analysis for the automotive sector. Kia plans to add an additional 25 dealerships in Mexico by the end of 2015 to bring the total number dealerships to 46.

  • Kia Motors assembly plant in good shape

    Kia Motors assembly plant in good shape

    There was a palpable air of excitement throughout the facility tour of the multi billion naira state-of-the-art assembly plant of Kia Motors Nigeria, in Lagos where over 20 journalists of leading media houses in the country visited the plant to see the equipment and the brand’s assembly process. There is no gainsaying the fact that, Kia has remained one of the major brands in  the country with its year-on-year phenomenal rise that has galvanised the brand into a monumental feat in the Nigerian auto industry following the unveiling of the plant in the first quarter of the year.

    Reinforcing the company’s unwavering commitment to the industrialisation of Nigerian economy and its great contributions to the success of the auto policy,the Chief Operation Officer,Gitesh Yagnik said Kia has invested heavily in the assembly plant. Its state-of-the-art technologies are arguably at par with any renowned plant. The plant now prides itself on the production of nine models and their respective trims in the country with over 2500 units rolled out since its launch in April, 2014.

    The sprawling complex has been built to the high standard of Kia Motors Corporation. Culminating in several months of construction, installation of technologically advanced equipment and the training of its staff have snowballed into its first assembly lines that assembles Kia models, such as its best-selling Kia Rio, Cerato, Optima, Sportage and the all-new 2015 Kia Sorento recently unveiled globally amongst others are all products from the plant.

    In tandem with all automobile assembling/manufacturing plants in new market practice globally, the plant kicked off with semi knocked down where painted and trimmed bodies are shipped from an established plant in one box, mechanicals in another, join the two, add some locally sourced transmission fluids, air conditioner gas and the host of others.

    With no prejudice and utmost transparency to help in alleviating the rate of unemployment in the country, over 85 per cent of the employees are sourced locally from top Nigerian universities.

    Speaking at the tour, the Chief Operation officer, Gitesh Yagnik pointed out that the plant house over 100 engineers drawn from Nigerian universities and had undergone a top notch intensive training program and capacity development before been employed into the plant.

    “We now have 150 trained and qualified engineers that can be compared to international standard and over 50 support staff running the operational and assembly process cycle of the plant”.

    Yemisi Onanuga, the Supply Chain manager, who conducted the tour, gave a holistic and professional insight of the plant’s facility and assembling process.

    Apparently, the plant is people-focused. “We believe our strength is in our employees rather than machines” the Chief Commercial Officer, Sandeep Malhotra, said.

    He further alluded to the fact that the success of the plant is premised on Nigeria’s auto policy. According to him, for the industry to be revolutionised and contribute significantly  to the country’s IGR, the government needs to stay true to the policy and clamp down on the unchecked influx of imported used cars, popularly known as “Tokunbo” vehicles.

     

  • KIA partners Diamond Bank on auto loan

    KIA partners Diamond Bank on auto loan

    Poised to make owning a new car easy and qick, Kia Motors Nigeria has renewed its partnership with Diamond Bank to offer auto loan scheme to potential customers starting from as low as N37,000 monthly payment plan. The auto finance scheme is premised on the success of the previous partnership that paved way for many a people to own a Kia of their choice.

    According to the Chief Commercial Officer of Kia Motors Nigeria, Mr Sandeep Malhotra, “the key motive behind this partnership is to bring car enthusiasts under the fold. This partnership will phase out tedious loan processing with flexible repayment plans, hassle-free documentation and quick processing to suit customers’ needs and most importantly give the best payment plan option starting from N37,000 monthly repayment plan”.

    Kia Motors Nigeria has remained the leading automobile company in the country to offer seamless auto finance schemes to her discerning customers with flexible payment options. In view of this, the recently signed partnership agreement with Diamond bank allows customers to get a new Kia car with 20 per cent equity contribution.

    With this collaboration, customers get free vehicle registration, fixed repayment plan, no management fee, no commitment fee and a free smart phone on every purchase.

    The scheme starts from November 14 to December 31. This partnership will pave way for both new and existing customers of the KIA brand to own a new vehicle of their choice in celebrating the yuletide period. With this scheme, customers can own a Rio or Picanto from as low as N37,000 fixed monthly repayment plan or Cerato, Optima and Sportage from as low as N57,000, N86,000 and N97,000 respectively.

     

  • Kia wins design prizes at Paris Show

    Kia wins design prizes at Paris Show

    Kia Motors was among the biggest winners at the Automotive Brand Contest 2014, an annual international design competition run by the German Design Council for automotive brands. The independent jury for the awards picked Kia as the winner in three categories.

    The Kia design team, led by Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Designer of Kia Motors Corporation and Hyundai Motor Group, won the Team of the Year title for its work across three continents. Kia Motors has design centers in Korea, California and Germany.

    Two prizes were also awarded to Kia vehicles. The Kia Provo, a sporty B-segment concept car unveiled at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, was named Best of Best in the Concepts category, while the second generation of the cult compact SUV, the Kia Soul, was distinguished as Winner in the Exterior Volume Brand category. The award presentation held at the Paris Motor Show last week.

    “Peter Schreyer and his international team have done a grand job over the past few years,” the jury stated, justifying its choice for the special Team of the Year award.

    “In an apparently saturated environment of formal possibilities for the Kia brand, they have come up with a unique brand design that stands out from the crowd and gives it an unmistakable face,” the jury added.

    Peter Schreyer commented: “This triple triumph is a fantastic endorsement of the work done by our design team, who absolutely deserve this success. I am thrilled about the awards and proud of my team.

    “First-class automobile design doesn’t happen by accident; it is the product of a continuous process based on passion and attention to detail. And only by striving for a lively exchange of ideas, and by being open to influences from different areas, is it possible to be really creative. The most important aspect, however, is team spirit, which can even reduce to nothing the distances between continents. The Kia design team consists of people of roughly 20 nationalities, languages and cultures – and every team member brings to the job the same passionate motivation to create something unmistakably Kia.”

    The Automotive Brand Contest, established in 2011, has quickly developed into a highly respected design competition. It is held by the German Design Council (Rat für Formgebung), which was founded in 1953 as an initiative of the German Federal Parliament to strengthen the design competence of the German economy. Today, this foundation counts among the world’s leading competence centers for communication and knowledge transfer in the field of design.

    The independent institution is sponsored by more than 200 companies, from both Germany and abroad. The Automotive Brand Contest is open to all companies in the automobile industry and their partners in the supply industry, and in the fields of design and brand communications. There are 10 award categories and four special award categories covering the entire design spectrum–from vehicle design and concepts, to brand design and multimedia networking, to campaigns and events.

     

  • Dana opens expanded showroom

    KIA Motors has opened a newly renovated and expanded showroom in the Victoria Island area of  Lagos.

    This is to further create exceptional service delivery to customers.

    Kia Head Marketing Kayode Adejumo said the company has invested in a modern showroom to meet the lineup of its brands and ensure efficient after sales and service. “The showroom is geared towards turning the experience of KIA customers into an adorable and memorable moment that rewards their enthusiasm and taste for quality and regalia designs,” he said.

    The new structure will feature display of the model range of KIA automobiles in Nigeria.

    Tailored along the exceptional service delivery of KIA Motors, the Victoria Island showroom will help cater to the needs of KIA fleet owners as they will always find keeping the fleet in top condition and get more value from KIA.