Kia Track’ster concept car set to make its official public premiere at the 2012 Chicago auto show!

Kia Motors America today released the very-first teaser image of its up-coming Track’ster concept vehicle. The Soul-based concept car will be officially unveiled at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show next week.

Designed by Kia’s Californian design studio (led by Tom Kearns), the Track’ster concept car sports a three-door hatchback body style and low roofline. It also features larger wheels and more aggressive body kit than the current Kia Soul. Under the hood, the Track’ster features a highly-potent turbo-charged four-cylinder engine with 250 horsepower.

(more…)

Up-close images of the all-new Kia cee’d 5-door hatchback reveal more details about the car’s stylish exterior!

A new set of Kia cee’d spy shots have fallen into our hands thanks to our friends from South Korea. These photos showcase the forth-coming cee’d from all angles and reveal some pretty nice details surrounding the new hatchback!

While the new cee’d is a secret no more, the interior stays hidden from view… for now.

Scheduled to debut at Geneva Auto Show in March, the all-new cee’d will first be available as a 5-door hatchback. Later in the year, Kia will also introduce a three-door pro_cee’d and cee’d wagon. The eagerly-awaited Kia pro_cee’d will, reportedly, also be available as a “hot hatch” featuring a 180+ horsepower 1.6L GDI turbo engine.

(more…)

Many major car makers tend to focus on the numbers that they post in the US, and that is oftentimes because of slack sales in the rest of the world. The same cannot be said for Kia who has done nothing but break sales records in just about every location where their vehicles are available.

It’s the perfect payoff for all the hard work that has been done over the past few years; laying the groundwork for a complete re-branding that meant better cars at lower prices. That has paid off in spades, and a quick look at the numbers in just a single location is enough to see how well that change has gone.

Earlier this month, Kia Canada released their 2011 sales figures, and they were better than most people could probably have ever imagined.

(more…)

Kia has done pretty well with the UVO infotainment system over the last year or so, but “pretty well” isn’t good enough for the SOuth Korean fastest growing carmaker. So they unveiled an improved version, UVO 2, at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

Built with Microsoft, UVO stands for “Your Voice” and offers advanced voice recognition and a touchscreen interface for interacting with the vehicle’s infotainment and multimedia systems. Kia’s UVO responds to simple voice commands to take care of your hands-free phone calls, streamed music, back-up camera, and more. This way, you can focus on actually driving.

(more…)

Spy shots of (supposedly) the China-specs Kia K3 sedan hit the world wide web!

Courtesy of auto.163.com, we are bringing you some new spy shots of the 2013 Kia K3 sedan, which has been caught testing on Chinese roads. The new compact sedan will be produced in China by Dongfeng-Yueda-Kia joint venture and is scheduled to go on sale in November this year.

The all-new Kia K3 will fit between the Kia K2 (Kia Rio in the USA) and Kia K5 (known as Kia Optima) and will compete against latest offerings from Ford, Toyota and VW.

Judging by the latest spy photos, the 2013 Kia K3 will sport the same overall exterior design lay-out as the forth-coming Kia Forte sedan. However, unique signature grille, reshaped bumpers and differently styled tail-lamps will set the K3 apart from the 2013 Forte sedan.

(more…)

Is this the all-new 2013 Kia cee’d 5-door hatchback?

The all-new Kia cee’d 5-door hatchback is scheduled to make its official public premiere at the Geneva Auto Show in March. It’s still more than two months before Kia puts the wraps off its next-generation C-segment car, which will be marketed exclusively in Europe, but we can already show you the very-first official image of it.

As evident from the image, the 2013 Kia cee’d will feature a completely redesigned exterior, which will adopt Kia’s latest styling elements, including H-shaped signature grille and stylish LED headlamps. The next-generation Kia Cee’d will be based on the Hyundai i30 platform and will include much of the same chassis and suspension components, and range of engines.

It will go on sale in Europe during the second quarter of 2012. Follow the jump to read Kia’s official press release!

UPDATE: 2 more images of the 2013 Kia cee’d added to the gallery!

(more…)

New Kia Ray EV, a zero-emissions city car, marks the beginning of a new era in Korean motoring!

Kia is entering the electric vehicle market by introducing the all-new Ray EV, Korea’s first-ever mass produced electric vehicle. After the official unveiling of a petrol-powered Ray mini-car, Kia has now lifted the lid on the Ray EV and its highly-advanced all-electric powertrain.

The all-new Ray EV will be built and sold exclusively in South Korea. Kia plans to produce 2.500 units in 2012 and provide all of them to the South Korean government departments and fleet buyers as a part of the carmaker’s long-term real-world research and development program.

(more…)

Is this the all-new 2013 Kia Forte 4-door sedan? We have gotten our hands on the exclusive image that previews Kia’s next-generation C-segment sedan. Set to make its official debut in 2012, the model will replace the Forte sedan, which has been on sale in the USA since 2009.

(more…)

We’ve all heard about the amazing sales results that Kia has posted in their native Korea, as well as here in the US, but that’s not the only place where they are making a major inroads in the new car market.

Kia Canada recently announced the results of its best November ever, and the numbers are nothing short of staggering. What makes the final figures even more incredible is that the record numbers were recorded in all regions of the country, and placed the industry best sales streak at 35 months of continued upward growth.

The number of units sold during the month of November 2011 came in at 4.854, which represented a jump of over 20 percent from the same period in 2010. That number also took total sales for the year to over 60.000, which was the first time that Kia Canada has achieved that mark in its eleven year history.

(more…)

November 2011 marks another strong month for Kia Motors America as the carmaker reported a 39 percent gain in sales. Kia sold a total of 37.007 new vehicles in November, up from 26.601 units sold during the same month a year ago. Kia’s year-to-date sales are up 35 percent with sales totaling 442.102 units!

Leading Kia’s U.S. sales in November 2011 was the 2012 Kia Sorento CUV with 9.669 units sold. The popular mid-size crossover vehicle was closely followed by Optima mid-size sedan which experienced a tremendous growth in sales, especially when compared to its sales performance from a year ago.

(more…)

In recent years it’s pretty fair to say that Kia Motors has turbocharged their approach to design and quality improvements, so it only seems appropriate that they would announce plans to introduce two turbocharged vehicles for entry into the 2012 motorsports world.

Kia and Kinetic Motorsports have partnered to create a pair of Optima SX’s that will be entered into the Pirelli World Challenge Championships. It doesn’t end there though, and Kia will also be entering into B-Spec racing with the all-new 2012 Rio 5-door, as well as having an Optima Hybrid as the pace car at all United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) events.

This is another building block on top of the motorsports foundation for Kia that was created with their success in the Continental Tire Sports car Challenge, where the Forte Koup won the constructor’s and driver’s championships in 2011.

(more…)

Kia Ray Video previews the South Korean first-ever KEI car, which goes on sale at the end of November.

Kia Ray Video:

The all-new 2012 Kia Rio sub-compact car has been awarded a 5-star safety rating in the latest EuroNCAP crash tests!

New Kia Rio is not just good to look at and fun to drive, but also safe on road. Earlier today, the EuroNCAP released its latest crash test results which confirmed that the 2012 Rio hatchback provides the highest levels of occupant protection in real-world accident scenarios.

The 2012 Rio received a maximum 5-star safety rating and became the sixth Kia vehicle to get the top safety rating. The car performed well in both frontal and side impacts and obtained an impressive score of 92 percent for adult occupant protection and 84 percent for child occupant protection. In addition, the Rio also obtained scores of 46 percent for pedestrian protection and 86 percent for safety assist.

(more…)

Kia Motors Korea drops new image and more information about Ray’s engine / gearbox options… 

Kia has finally released some official details about the all-new Ray city car, which made its official “on-line” premiere last week with the release of first official images. Set to go on sale next week, the 2013 Ray will be marketed exclusively in South Korea where it will be available with Kia’s new 1.0L Kappa engine.

Initially, the Ray will only be available with the 1.0L three-cylinder gasoline engine, while later, the vehicle will also get a full-electric powertrain. We have no information about the full-electric model at this point, but we do know that the gasoline-powered Kia Ray will generate 78 horsepower and 9.6 kilogram-meters of torque. Mated to the fuel-sipping 3-cylinder engine will be the 4-speed automatic transmission.

(more…)

Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of the current new car market will be quick to point out that Kia’s producing some of the best designed, fuel efficient vehicles out there.

And thanks to the trio of hip-hop hamsters who promote the Kia Soul in the TV ads, that has become one of the more sought after models in their entire line-up. A big part of Kia’s re-design process over the last few years has been aimed at providing all the positives mention earlier, but doing so at a price that is more than a little competitive.

It’s a fantastic approach that has paid off in spades in regards of sales, but there are still people who, for one reason or another, simply cannot afford to buy a new car.

(more…)