Kia Motors has been presented with two international certificates which recognise the advanced environmental design and manufacturing processes behind the Kia cee’d.
Globally recognized, German-based, TÜV presented Kia with a DFE (Design for Environment) and a LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) environment certificate at a special ceremony in Seoul, Korea, on 25 April, after rigorous inspection of the company’s design operations and the manufacturing facility at Zilina in Slovakia. The Kia cee’d, designed for and made in Europe, is the first Korean car to receive such recognition.
TÜV NORD environmental certificates are not easily earned. The only significant vehicles to achieve both DFE and LCA certificates in recent years are the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (2005) and Mercedes-Benz C-Class (2006).Mr Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, International Business Division of Kia Motors Corporation, enthused; “The awarding of two international environment certificates for the Kia cee’d and its excellent 5-Star rating in EuroNCAP crash testing are first-time achievements for a Korean automotive company of which we can all be proud.
Our Zilina facility was environmentally certified in 2007 and later this year we will start manufacturing cee’d vehicles with fuel-stretching and CO2 reducing technologies from our experimental eco_cee’d line-up, further underlining Kia’s strong and continuing drive to minimize its impact on the environment,” concluded Mr Lee.
DFE (ISO 14062) evaluates a car’s environmental friendliness during its design and development, plus the ease with which the car can be disassembled and its level of recyclability. DFE also requires that the assembly plant for the car reaches ISO 14001.
LCA (ISO 14040) examines both the car’s overall manufacturing process and its lifetime environmental impact, including choice of materials and measures to reduce fuel consumption and engine exhaust emissions. The cee’d features lightweight all-aluminium engines (weighing 15 kg less) and Kenaf (a form of jute) recycled materials form its door trim panels.
Last year, Kia’s Zilina factory was certified as an ‘environmentally-friendly’ facility when Kia Motors Slovakia (KMS) was presented with an ISO 14001 international certificate of environmental management. Many of the production and waste-management technologies in operation at Zilina are among the very best available in the world, with a minimised impact on the environment.
Mr In-Kyu Bae, President of Kia Motors Slovakia, said; “When launching vehicle and component production, we focused our attention on observing all environmental regulations in both spirit and letter. Personally, I am very glad we had a chance to prove our commitment to being ‘environmentally-friendly. We received the internationally renowned environmental certificate ISO 14001 within a year of starting production and we can be proud of our achievements to gain these new certificates.” [Source: Kia UK]
April 28th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Greg had got this posted on his forums. Cee’d really deserves all this. It an awsome car. other cars are barely anything in front of it. It’s competitive in all sectors; even eco-friendliness. Kudos Kia.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
It’s interesting how we forget that production of cars can also be as harmful for environment as a car itself. We only look at cars as the main reason of pollution, but many times vehicle production, for an example: hybrid production, can make even more damage to the environment.
It’s great to hear carmakers are aware of that problem and they try to develope more environmentally-friendly production processes.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Again, the cee’d spanks the competition! I think I’m going to have to move to Europe to get this car. Unless KMA decides “Well, this car continues to get awards for it’s fantastic-ness, maybe the USA market could benefit from a fuel efficient, crash tested, snazzy design hatchback!” Especially with the rumor of the end to the Spectra 5, we need something like that for the next Spectra generation. All in favor of bringing the cee’d to the USA (and the other markets that it is currently unavailable) say, “Aye!”
“AYE!”
Also (to add to what himi says), the article mentions a vehicles end result. If a vehicle isn’t recyclable, it’s just junkyard waste that’ll sit there forever. Vehicles that’re made with parts that can be reused and recycled is something auto makers should (and more and more are) do. That’s what the Design for the Environment (DFE) part is about. Cheers to Kia!
April 30th, 2008 at 6:55 am
We will get the TD-Spectra for 2009, in 4-door form and probably Coupe form. However, I have not read of a Spectra5 replacement as of yet.