You can now watch Kia Picanto presentation video.

For those who might wonder why this little funky Picanto looks a bit different, KIA-WORLD wants yout to know that Picanto has just been facelifted for 2008 model year!

Enjoy!

As reported, Kia posted a nice increase in earnings for second quarter of the year, ending June 30th. Net income in the last three months rose 36 percent to $67 million compared with $45 million a year earlier.

So what is the main reason for Kia to be in black again, after four quarters of making loss?
Kia sold 289,334 vehicles in the April to June period, 1.4 percent fewer than a year earlier. Domestic sales declined 2.1 percent while exports slid 1.2 percent. Kia’s cost-to-revenue ratio was unchanged at 85.7 percent in the first half, even as overall revenue fell. The automaker said it cut manufacturing costs by about 800 million dollars so far this year.

Regarding the sales, their facelifted Opirus (named Amanti in US market), which is Kia’s most expensive car doubled sales in its home market. Number of luxury Opirus cars sold in S.Korea surged to 5,788 during the second quarter, compared with 2,924 a year earlier. And the carmaker’s average selling price in Korea rose 6.5 percent in the first half, helped by demand for more expensive Opirus sedans and Sorento SUVs, Kia said.

With Kia launching some very interesting new SUVs in the near future (HM and Soul), we hope this trend of making good money at Kia continues!

Hyundai and Kia together appear set to produce one million cars overseas this year.According to data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors together rolled out 556,053 cars in factories in the U.S., India, Turkey, China and Slovakia in the first half of this year.

Last year’s overseas production was 844,409 cars for Hyundai and 12,433 cars for Kia. Based on their output so far, Hyundai and Kia look likely to hit the one million mark overseas this year.

Meanwhile Hyundai increased its annual production capacity in Turkey last April by 40,000 to 100,000, and is also planning to start up a second factory in India in November with production aimed at 300,000 units annually.

Kia is set to complete construction on a second factory in China in October also capable of producing 300,000 units a year. Production will start off at 150,000 units annually until 2011 when the company will turn up output to up to 300,000 units.

The Kia Cee’d has beaten off the competition yet again!Cee’d was introduced in five-door format in March this year and has already bagged a number of awards, making the Special Honour the car’s sixth accolade in just five months.

On announcing the Special Award at the 2007 Auto Express New Car Honours ceremony, Tiff Needell said: “Kia has worked tirelessly over recent years to improve their product range and establish themselves firmly in consumers’ minds. With the introduction of their first truly European product early this year and its industry leading seven-year warranty, Kia have given us all a reason to think twice before we buy elsewhere.”

Kia’s seven-year, 100,000 mile warranty offers customers a European first, providing full bumper-to-bumper coverage for the whole period. This leading warranty is a result of the outstanding manufacturing quality from Kia’s new Zilina plant, currently the most efficient and environmentally friendly factory in Europe!

Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President of Kia Motors Europe collected the Special Honour saying: “Zilina is our first factory in Europe and is producing our highest quality product yet. The combination of a new factory and new product has opened the door for Kia in the European markets. The seven-year warranty is not just a result of improved design and manufacturing but a direct reflection of the faith we hold in our new products.

“And cee’d five-door is only the first member of the Cee’d family. With Cee’d SW arriving this September and three-door early next year, we are set for a truly remarkable product line-up. Add to that the talents of our Chief Designer, Peter Schreyer, and our aims for growth in Europe will soon be realised.”

[source: autoscoop.biz]

The first teaser/detail shots of the production Kia Mesa SUV are out, and it looks like the body-on-frame truck’s outward appearance is going to be close to the KCD-II Mesa concept that made its debut back in 2005 at the Detroit Auto Show. (Is it us, or does that grille look very New Tribeca/Chrysler Town & Country-ish?)

Rumored to be showing up sometime in the fall in Korea and early ‘08 in the US, we should expect to see a 260-horsepower 3.8L V6 underhood. Spy shots that appeared earlier in the year hint at an attractive interior, and there has been speculation that a V8 will be in the mix at some point, too.

We have to assume that it’ll be shown at either Los Angeles or Detroit if the US release timing really is set for early ‘08. The biggest question might be whether or not Kia will find an audience for a big SUV in the current climate. That said, with V6 power, a snappy cabin, and assuming it’s got three rows of seating, it could be positioned against the GM Lambda crossovers, which are sizable machines, themselves. {source: Autoblog}
Click image to enlarge:

Kia Motors efforts to spend less on marketing and cut other costs helped the company to achieve a 36 percent rise in net profit.

Yesterday, Kia reported it’s first net profit in four quarters in the second quarter of this year, according to the nation’s second-largest automaker on Friday.

However, a stronger won currency and persistent labour unrest are expected to squeeze short-term earnings at Kia, analysts said.

Despite the positive second-quarter results, Kia posted an operating loss of 36.7 billion won (US$40 million) in the first six months of this year, as it sold fewer cars and was hit by a damaging labour strike.

“We are now trying to complete wage negotiations with union as soon as possible to help improve earnings in the second half,” Kia’s Chief Executive Officer Cho Nam-hong said in a statement.

On the same day, Kia’s 28,000-member union was voting to decide on whether to accept a tentative wage agreement to end partial strikes since early this month that cost the automaker US$370 million in lost production.

In the three months to June, Kia earned 61.4 billion won ($67 million) in net profit, compared with a profit of 45 billion won for the same period a year earlier.

At the operating level, Kia bounced back into the black with a profit of 36.9 billion won, compared with a loss of 16 billion won a year ago.

For the April to June quarter, Kia sold 289,334 vehicles, down 1.4 per cent from a year ago. Kia’s vehicle sales for the first half of this year fell 4.4 percent to 560,474 units, the company said.

“By the end of this year, Kia Motors aims to cut costs by a total of 1.8 trillion won,” Kia’s Chief Financial Officer Ahn Hee-bong told analysts in a conference call. Ahn said Kia had already cut 795.8 billion won in costs in the first half.

“Longer, lower and lighter than its five-door sister car, the new Kia Pro-cee’d is going to be a great drive,” enthused Mr Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe.  “Combining real style and genuine practicality, our new three-door cee’d is sure to delight existing Kia customers and attract a new group of European consumers who have not yet considered our brand.”

Kia Motors Corporation recently released the first preview image of its exciting new Kia three-door hatchback model which will make its world debut at this year’s Frankfurt International Motor Show on 11th of September.

Manufactured in Slovakia, the Pro-cee’d will be the third member of the Kia cee’d family, joining the popular Cee’d five-door and the soon to be released Cee’d SW models to make Kia an especially strong challenger for C-segment sales in Europe.

Production of the Pro-cee’d model range is scheduled to begin in November with first customer sales during the early months of 2008.

Click here for larger picture

Kia’s second production base in the eastern province of Jiangsu will start assembling in October, said Dongfeng Yueda Kia general manager at a news conference in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. The project is a joint venture (JV) between Kia and its Chinese partners, Dongfeng Motor Corp. and Jiangsu Yueda Investment.

Earlier this year, the engine production had already begun and had been fitted into its much-in-demand model Cerato.

The new factory is a major investment for the South Korean carmaker, with a total investment of 6.8 billion yuan, covering an area of 360,000 square meters, The new plant is expected to increase Kia’s annual production capacity in China from 130,000 to 430,000 units.

The Hyundai Kia Automotive Group has opened a $58 million environmental technology research and development center here that is designed to “accelerate the commercialization of fuel-cell electric vehicles.”

The green center’s facilities include a hydrogen filling station, a fuel-cell endurance tester, an emissions lab, dynamometers and other high-tech equipment for testing electric propulsion systems. Hyundai Kia said it also included a “pilot plant for automated vehicle dismantling focusing on improving the material recycling rate of end-of-life vehicles.”

The center will be home to 200 researchers and includes state-of-the-art green processes, including “vacuum toilet systems,” which save 1,500 tons of water annually.

The lofty goal of the center is to make the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group “the world leader in environmental technology,” the company said in a statement.

European Union regulators on Thursday approved 32 million euros ($44 million) in Slovak government aid to Kia Motors Corp. to expand a car plant there.

The European Commission said the aid was in line with EU state aid rules and would not give the South Korean car maker an unfair advantage over competitors.

It said the aid was part of regional aid projects to boost jobs in lesser developed areas. “The positive contribution of the overall investment project to regional development far outweighs the potential distortive effects of the aid,” the commission said in a statement.

The Kia plant officially opened its doors in April located near the northwestern city of Zilina, which is the company’s first in Europe. The maximum capacity of 300,000 cars a year is expected to be reached by 2010 and the factory will create 3,000 jobs. The new aid will help expand the plant to meet the 2010 production target.

Click on picture  below to read the text  about this future Kia.

Kia Motors Corporation has confirmed that its all-new sports coupe concept car will make its World Premiere at this year’s Frankfurt International Motor Show on 11 September.

Conceived by Kia’s design team in Europe under the guidance of Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, and manufactured in Europe, the new concept car, whose name remains secret at present, is a 2+2 coupe with an imposing road presence.

Revealing the first ‘preview image’ of the new car, Schreyer enthused, “Kia has given me the opportunity to shape its whole brand design and character. Seldom does a designer have such a clean sheet to work with. We started this exciting journey with the Kia ex_cee’d cabrio concept at the Geneva Show back in March, and at Frankfurt I’m sure Kia will surprise the entire automotive world when people see our new sports coupe concept in the metal.”

Ambitious Kia’s attack on international car markets knows no bounds. They’ve been sowing the seed of an idea to become one of the leading players and now that growth is self-evident.

Or should I say, sowing the Cee’d? Because that’s the quirky name chosen for Kia’s European model that is taking on the might of standard giants in the mid-sized hatchback market such as Ford Focus, VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra.

The Cee’d (funkily written without a capital C in contemporary style) is the smoothly styled five-door hatch that Kia admits is the most important car they have ever launched. Replacing the Cerato model, Kia believe it is the catalyst that will push them on to a three per cent overall UK market share and 100,000 sales annually.

And Kia now believe that the car matches or surpasses anything in its clsass in terms of packaging, quality, driving dynamics, safety, style and image.

Read an interesting article here: http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?sectionid=549&articleid=2956412

Actually it started to role off line in the first week of June when Kia Motors started serial production of a freshened version of the Sportage, at its factory in Zilina, Slovakia.Kia plans plans to make 40,000 units of the  Sportage SUV by year-end plus about 110,000 units of the Kia Cee’d, their latest hatchaback model. The Slovak manufactured SUVs only will be sold in western and central Europe.“We are focused on the European market. There are no plans for exports,” Kia Motors Slovakia spokesman Dusan Dvorak said. Russia will get Sportages made in Korea, the car’s other production site.