INCUS stands for Innovative Customization System. This is the tuning company based in South Korea and is a part of Hyundai-Kia Automotive group. The company is specialized for the development and supply of tuning and dress-up parts for Hyundai and Kia cars. It’s product line includes aerodynamics bodykits, forged alloy wheels, sports suspensions and sporty sound exhaust systems.

Their latest creation is pretty darn cool. The INCUS cee’d shows what happens when a vehicle gets full visual makeover. The stock grille is replaced by a black honeycomb unit adopting red stripe and XR badge. The change is augmented by the addition of attractively designed front, rear and side skirts, rear spoiler and sweet looking filler cap. The INCUS body kit for Kia cee’d is already on sale in some markets across the Europe.

Related news: Kia cee’d tuning

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Kia Motors Corporation, one of the fastest growing automakers in the world, in conjunction with its joint venture Dongfeng Yueda Kia (DYK) Motors, officially opened its second manufacturing facility in China at a ceremony in Jiangsu Province on Saturday.

The opening of the $800 million state-of-the-art, fully integrated passenger car production facility indicates that expansion plans to boost overseas production to over one million by 2009 are on track and represents a pivotal step in the automaker’s goal to ensure long-term success in China.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kia Motors Chairman & CEO, Mong-Koo Chung said, “Along with our Slovakia Plant currently in operation and the U.S. plant in Georgia scheduled for completion in 2009, this second plant in China plays a significant role in our ‘glocalization’ strategy of thinking globally and acting locally to bring ultimate satisfaction to our valued customers around the world.” (more…)

Struggling German car manufacturing company Karmann is negotiating a major contract with Korean carmaker Kia, company insiders told Automobilwoche, Automotive News Europe’s sister publication.

The Osnabrück-based company, which does everything from design to the assembly of components, has had several deals with the Korean firm in recent years. Between 1995 and 1998, Karmann manufactured around 26,000 units of the Kia Sportage.

The company also developed the softtop for the Ex Cee’d convertible, which Kia introduced at the auto show in Geneva earlier this year.

A Kia spokesperson said that a decision to build the new model has yet to be reached. If Kia decides to produce the convertible, then the soft roof — as well as the entire car — might be manufactured externally, with Karmann being one of the contenders.

“We don’t want to endanger the negotiations by commenting on speculation,” said a Karmann spokesperson. The Karmann works council said the contract being discussed would involve the manufacture of an entire car, a contract that could secure jobs for many years. [Source: Autonews]

Ex_cee’d gallery…click here!

Lady’s who love their motors – there’s a new car in town and it’s the ultimate accessory. Forget shoes, handbags – even clothes!…the new-look Kia Picanto will ensure you get heads turning left, right and centre.

And, to ensure all beauty conscious drivers know how to look their best, Kia Motors (UK) Ltd has teamed up with make-artist Ruby Miller, who has excellent advice about looking beautiful behind the wheel.

Ruby says, “Looking great while driving can sometimes be a challenge. Unfortunately many women still make the faux pas of applying their make-up in the car. Apart from being a dangerous distraction while driving, it’s really not becoming and car mirrors are very unflattering, meaning you will never look as good as if you had applied your make-up before getting behind the steering wheel. (more…)

Kia Motors Corp , said on Saturday it aims to double its sales in China next year with the help of its second factory in the world’s second-largest car market.

Kia, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co , opened its second Chinese factory, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, in Jiangsu province. The company has another car plant nearby with a capacity of 130,000 units.

Kia said in a statement its Chinese unit aimed to sell 200,000 vehicles in the world’s fastest growing auto market next year.

For the first 11 months of 2007, it has sold 89,712 cars, down 13.8 percent from the same period a year ago. But Kia dealers in China on Friday resolved to sell 15,000 cars in December, the company said. (more…)

It’s been a long time since we last talked about Kia’s big dady. Therefore let’s take a look at some latest and most important Hyundai news:

More than half of Italian car market belongs to minicars like Fiat Panda, Fiat 500, Opel Corsa, Ford Fiesta, Kia Picanto and others. Massive small car demand was enough of a reason for Hyundai to unveil it’s latest supermini baby named i10 at Bologna Motor Show.

The exciting new city car is the second Hyundai car to bear the “i” prefixis and is designed to be fun-to-drive, affordable and practical while offering quality and equipment that no other rival can offer at the price.  i10 introduces additional two new engines, automatic transmission, versatile interior configuration, together with sophisticated equipment levels and styling to the competitive A segment. We found some great exterior and interior shots at Autoblog.it (click here)! (more…)

Kia Motors America, Inc. (KMA) today announced John Crowe will be joining the company as vice president, service, effective January 2, 2008.

In his new role with Kia, Crowe will direct and manage all aspects of service including customer satisfaction initiatives, retail fixed operations development, product quality, technical service operations, warranty administration and consumer affairs. This position will report to Len Hunt, president and chief executive officer, KMA.

“John brings vast experience in fixed operations to his new role with Kia,” said Len Hunt, president and chief executive officer. “He will be an asset to our executive management team.“Crowe comes to Kia following a successful 30-year career in fixed operations with automotive, motor sports and recreational vehicle manufacturers.

Most recently he served as assistant vice president, parts and accessories at Yamaha Motor Corporation, where he was responsible for sales, marketing, product planning, engineering, quality assurance, purchasing and distribution logistics. Prior to Yamaha, Crowe held senior management positions with Fleetwood Enterprises, Porsche Cars North America, Mazda Motors of America and Subaru of New England.

Canada’s auto market sputtered badly last month despite the biggest incentive boost in the industry’s history. Sales and leases of new autos dropped 5 per cent, or more than 6,000, to 117,284 cars and light trucks in November from the same month last year, manufacturers reported yesterday.

Among last month’s losers, General Motors of Canada Ltd. said its sales tumbled 10.2 per cent, or more than 3,000 units, to 28,071. Volume at Ford fell 8.4 per cent to 15,909 vehicles in November while business at Toyota Canada Inc., including the luxury Lexus division, dropped 8.3 per cent to 12,554.

Honda Canada Inc., including the luxury Acura brand, said its sales decreased 2.7 per cent to 13,676 while deliveries for Nissan Canada Inc., including the Infiniti nameplate, dropped 13 per cent to 4,858.

Sales at Hyundai Auto Canada dropped 5.1 per cent to 5,510 and business at Mazda Canada declined 10 per cent to 4,715. Business for BMW Group Canada, including the Mini brand, hit a November record as business shot up 16.2 per cent to 2,221.

Kia’s volumes also soared 17.3 per cent to 2,765 in November. The most popular Kia vehicle was Rondo with 670 units sold in November, followed by Rio compact, 517 units. Other models: Sportage 409, Sedona 203, Sorento 128.

Follow our monthly Kia sales reports here.

Kia’s European manufacturing plant produced over 140.000 cars in its first year of full production.

Production at the Kia Motors Slovakia plant began in December 2006 with the launch of the cee’d five-door model.

In June 2007, the Sportage sports and utility model was introduced, followed by a family combi cee’d only a month later. The newest model at the plant is the three-door sports pro_cee’d. All models are made on the same lines in mixed production.

According to company president and CEO In-Kyu Bae, especially important for Kia were the smooth production launches of the various models and the achievement of a high level of quality and productivity.

“Credit goes mainly to the efforts and skills of our Slovak employees, thanks to whom we managed to launch production and achieve a high level of efficiency in the first year,” said In-Kyu Bae.

At present, Kia Motors Slovakia has 2,700 employees, of which 2,350 are directly employed in production, with the rest working as engineers and administrative staff.

The Kia plant is the only car factory in Slovakia with its own engine production, producing four engine types – two petrol and two diesel. The plant is currently producing some 750 cars per day on average.

The world sixth largest automaker, Hyundai Kia decided to install two new top executives to oversee the company’s operation in Chinese market, the Shanghai-based Morning Post reported today.

Kim Dong-jin, vice Chairman of the Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman has been appointed to head Beijing Hyundai and Kim Yong-Hwan, Senior Executive Vice-President has been selected to oversee the sales and production of Dongfeng Yueda Kia.

In the first ten months, Beijing Hyundai sales in Chinese market dropped 20.3 percent to 186,612 vehicles and Dongfeng Yueda Kia dropped 16.4 percent to 78,384 vehicles.

In September, Beijing Hyundai, the biggest loser in Chinese market this year, announced to cut its sales target by 50,000 to 260,000 this year.

Beijing Hyundai launched agressive price cuts for its sedans in the first week of September: average of 12.3 percent cut Elentra, 10.2 percent cut for Sonata and 7.4 percent cut for Accent.

Dongfeng Yueda Kia launched its first SUV Sportage in late October, which competes with Hyundai Tuscon and Honda CRV. [Source: gasgoo]

In an era of high oil prices and concerns over environmental pollution, the development of eco-friendly futuristic motor vehicles is something automakers cannot afford to ignore.

At this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show in September and Tokyo’s Motor Show in October, it was definitely the “clean cars,” or eco-friendly vehicles that stole the limelight. (more…)

The Kia cee’d continues to add to its growing list of accolades in Europe with the Romanian Union of Auto Journalists and Publishers (UZEAR – Romanian) awarding the cee’d with its most prestigious trophy, “2008 Car of the Year.” This was UZEAR – Romanian’s eighth award ceremony since 1999.

This award comes on the heels of a recent “Family Car of the Year” award for the cee’d SW from Sweden’s Motorf-raren Magazine. In Poland, the cee’d also won the “2007 Compact-Class Fleet Car of the Year” by Fleet Awards Polska organized by The Fleet Magazine along with Playboy’s “Car of the Year” award.

During the Autoweek competition in the Netherlands, it won the “2007 Innovation Award.” In addition, the cee’d was short-listed for the “2008 European Car of the Year” (COTY) award, coming in fourth place and beating out some European favourites in the final vote. (more…)

Besides passanger cars, SUVs, MPVs, trucks and military vehicles, Kia also manufactures a range of buses. One of those, sold mainly on Korean market is a Grandbird bus, which was redesigned to boost domestic sales.

Kia spent $54 million and three years to develop the revamped version, the automaker said in a statement on Thursday, without giving information on sales targets.