AUTOMOTIVE
MAY 24, 2022
The Rise And Fall Of KIA Motors
Learn the history of KIA Motors as one of the biggest car manufacturers from South Korea.
KIA Motors Corporation, commonly known as KIA Motors is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul. KIA is South Korea’s second largest automaker, just behind its parent company, Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of more than 2.8 million vehicles in 2019.
KIA stands for “Korean International Automotive” or “Korea Industrial Autocar”. According to KIA Motors, the name “Kia” comes from the Sino-Korean characters “ki” (起, “appear”) and “a” (亞, meaning East Asia); so that Kia can be interpreted as “Emerging from the East.”
KIA was founded in December 1944 under the name Kyungsung Precision Industry, to manufacture steel tubes and bicycle parts, then produced Korea’s first domestic bicycle, the Samchully, in 1951.
In 1952, Kyungsung Precision Industry changed its name to KIA Industries and then began manufacturing small motorcycles under license from Honda (starting in 1957) as well as trucks and cars under license from Mazda.
The beginning of KIA Motors’ journey in the automotive industry began with producing bicycles in 1952. In 1962, KIA innovated to make an automatic bicycle. In the same year they launched a 3-wheel truck called Ceres an in 1974 produced four-wheeled vehicles sedan type.
KIA declared bankruptcy in 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, and in 1998, managed to reach an agreement with Hyundai Motor Company to diversify by swapping shareholdings between the two companies. Hyundai Motor Company also acquired a 51% stake in KIA, beating Ford Motor Company, which had held a number of KIA Motors shares since 1986.
After a number of divestments, Hyundai Motor Company now holds only about one-third of the total shares of KIA Motor Corporation. Although Hyundai Motor Company remains the largest shareholder, KIA Motor Company also holds shares of the 22 subsidiaries of Hyundai Motor Company.
In 2000, KIA Motors set its sights not only for the domestic market but also the overseas market. Since 2005, KIA has decided to focus on the European market and announced its design as a “Growth Core Machine”.
They recruited Peter Schreyer as Chief Design Officer (CDO) in 2006. Since Peter Schreyer’s joining, KIA Motors has successfully developed unique designs for KIA products and forged a strong brand identity for consumers around the world.
Schreyer argues that a car must have a strong, distinctive, and special face or image or characteristic. Therefore, Schreyer decided to give KIA a “Tiger Nose”. From that concept, Peter also designed a new grille for cars made by KIA. The tiger is a strong figure on the one hand and on the other hand he is graceful. This is the vision and mission of KIA since 2009.
In October 2006, KIA Motors America laid the first symbol to begin construction of KIA Motors Manufacturing Georgia in West Point, Georgia, with an investment of US$1 billion. KIA Motors Manufacturing Georgia officially opened in February 2010, after KIA recorded its 15th consecutive market share growth in the United States.
As of December 31, 2015, Hyundai Motor Company held a 33.88% stake in KIA Motors. As of December 31, 2015, KIA Motors also held shares of 22 Hyundai subsidiaries, with amounts varying from 4.9% to 45.37%.
Until today, KIA Motors is a large global company that exports around 1.5 million units of four-wheeled vehicles every year, such as passenger cars, commercial vehicles and buses.
KIA’s vehicle units are now spread across nearly 170 countries around the world. They have several research facilities and global design centers spread across various countries, including Korea, Germany, Slovakia, China and the United States with approximately 44,000 employees.
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