Bill Caven charts the Korean marque’s spectacular growth - and says there’s a lot more to come…
When you think about it, life is full of little surprises. For example, how did the Spanish equivalent of Stevie Wonder become an international football referee?
Similarly, if you had dared to suggest a few years ago that a Korean motor manufacturer would become a major world player, then the chances are you would have been laughed out of town.
But the fact of the matter is that Kia Motors have now achieved their goal - and, what’s more, they still haven’t called a halt to their growth.Several years back the automaker hovered around the top 12 in the global sales ranking. Now they have gatecrashed into the top five league of leading manufacturers - more than justifying their worldwide slogan of “The Power to Surprise”.
In a relatively short space of time, Kia have become the real Seoul Superstars, and they’ve got more to sing about in the coming years. Originally founded as a bicycle maker more than 60 years ago, they changed direction in 1961 when they produced their first motorcycle. The following year Kia launched their first truck - a three-wheeler no less.
Their automotive interests became apparent in 1974, when their first passenger car - the Brisa - appeared on the scene. But the road to success didn’t come easy, as the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s forced a merger with the Hyundai Group.
Since then this partnership have grown spectacularly and now their worldwide operations extend to 165 countries. Future growth is not restricted to their homebase in South Korea, where they currently have four production centres building nearly four million vehicles a year.
That’s because, Kia have also recently opened plants in China and Slovakia, the latter of which will become home for the expanding Cee’d family and the Sportage SUV. Having established a valuable foothold in the American motoring scene, Kia are also constructing a major plant in Georgia.
But the real strength of this motoring giant lies in their decision to invest heavily in research and development. Kia spend a whopping six per cent of any revenue gained on searching for new inventions that will bolster safety and new forms of energy.
At their sprawling base in Namyang some of the sharpest motoring brains in the business are currently developing the marque’s first hybrid saloon car. In addition, Kia are concentrating their efforts on developing a fuel cell electric vehicle.
Based on the Sportage, the FCEV is a hydrogen-fuelled, electrically-driven platform that represents the next step forward in the company’s continuing commitment to produce cleaner and greener vehicles. The search for motoring excellence has also seen Kia establish four overseas R&D centres: two in California, another in Japan and one in Germany.
Together they are determined to keep this mercurial motoring marque at the forefront of the world automotive scene.
By Bill Caven [Scottish Daily Record]
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November 28th, 2007 at 1:48 am
I have praised Kia on the internet for about 7 years now and I never let people just blindly
jab at the automaker. From my experience with my 1999 Kia Sephia I could tell that this automaker
had the intelligence and the spunk to shine. And shine they have, having risen to number 5 automaker
in the world. I will be watching every step of the way to see what else Kia has in store for us.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Kia is NOT #5 in the world. The Hyundai Automotive Group, which 38% is Kia, is ranked #6 in the world.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
November 28th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
What did Boris say up there?
November 29th, 2007 at 2:33 am
I confirmed it. Kia is #5 for the last 4 days! HA!
November 29th, 2007 at 3:59 am
I knew it. That info was not up to date. by the way posterhoster I must say: What An Entrance!
November 29th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Wait, are you saying he is right or I am right? I know they have been fifth for 4 days.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:14 am
I meant. Poster hoster’s info was not up to date. u r right.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:15 am
let me write that again. I meant, poster hoster’s info was not up to date. u r right Greg.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:00 am
OK. Just making sure.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:18 am
So, they are not taking Hyundai in to account when they call Kia Motors the No.5 automaker in the
world? Is Hyundai No.4? or, like posterhoster blogged, is the combined Hyundai/Kia juggernaut No.5
automaker in the world? Now I need to know the answer to this!
November 30th, 2007 at 2:56 am
its the 2 combined that make us the 5th largest company in the world as of last year! we took nissan out of the #5 spot and beat them in reliablity
November 30th, 2007 at 3:11 am
That’s cool!
November 30th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I will check his out, but I think Hyundai-Kia are 6th in the world right now and they intend to become No.5 by 2010.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Yes, I have heard that they want to be Number 5 in the world by 2010. They have said that for about what, 5 or 6 years now? I have to agree with himi on
this, I have been hearing that they are Number 6 in the world for several years now. Could be that the number may be revised now, though, and Hyundai/Kia may have bopped nasty Nissan in to the Number 6 spot. Cool!
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 am
Bill was my guest in Korea a few weeks back and he’s reading his pres material a little optimistically! The current “official” statement and the one we use in the UK is that Hyundai-Kia Motor Group is currently the sixth largest motor manufacturer - it all gets a bit frantic and emotional when you start claiming a change of position based on a few days of figures. let’s see how the year ends - we would love nothing more to be in the top 5!
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I remember Hyundai-Kia Automotive group set the goal to become No5 in the world by 2010. You were sixth largest automaker till this year, but since the Daimler-Chrysler split up in summer you might have already become No.5!
Daimler-Chrysler was 4th or 5th last year, but now their numbers have split and fell down by half of the previous number. So you automatically climbed one place higher on the rank of largest automotive companies.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Wow-good reasoning going on there himi! I think that you may have nailed it spot on there. We’ll be looking and sharing the additional information as we go along, oh yes we will.
BTW-I truly don’t like Nissan much at all. AAMOF the only one I might consider in their lineup is the Versa, and it is made by them with Renault! Their truly own products I don’t like-the Skyline is cool but I don’t even want to know how much it may cost, ya know what I mean? Besides, I only buy 4-door rigs-SUV’s, crossovers or sedans. And the Versa is the only Nissan 4-door product that I like at all.
Now let’s get back to real cars–Kia’s to be exact!