One million cars from Kia

The Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia has just built its 1,000,000^th car – a white, diesel-engined cee’d SW. The car was handed over to a Slovakian children’s charity, the Red Nose Clowndoctors. The cee’d is also the 600,000th version of the Zilina factory’s first car, plus the factory now produces the Sportage and Venga as well.

“Kia Motors Slovakia has achieved an important milestone in its history with the production of the millionth car. We decided to donate it to an organisation which will bring pleasure to children during their stay in hospitals,” said Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia.

New Kia Optima saloon

The all-new Kia Optima goes on sale on the 1st February as Kia targets the business fleet car market with this new model, with a diesel-only line-up. The car is available in six-speed manual or automatic transmissions with four trim levels available – all with a very high level of standard specification. The new Kia Optima offers class-leading space and CO2 emissions as low as 128g/km of CO2 and a combined mpg of 57.6, so is an ideal shortlist for any company car driver.

The Optima was unveiled at the New York Auto Show and became Korea’s top-selling car within a month of going on sale. To date nearly 300,000 Optimas have been sold worldwide and the car was designed by Kia’s Chief Design Officer (Peter Schreyer) and his team.  

Kia Optima

It now joins the Kia family of Sorento, Soul, Venga, Sportage, c’eed, Picanto, Rio and provides Kia a full range of vehicles to offer across a fleet company car policy.

The UK model line-up and pricing  

Kia new four-door sports sedan

Kia is planning to unveil a brand new four-door sports sedan (saloon) concept at the IAA 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, plus the world premiere of the three-door version of the all-new Rio and a facelift version of the Kia Soul.

The new four-door sedan concept has a powerful, dynamic, forward-looking style and this new design clearly signals a new styling direction for the Kia brand. The car has rear-wheel drive and the sleek and muscular proportions of this sports sedan are married to a sophisticated and elegant four-seater cockpit.

Peter Schreyer, Kia Motors Chief Deign Officer, commented,”No matter from which perspective you look at it – this concept car is roaring with energy and ready for take-off. I believe the car is a strong statement from Kia: we are ready to fast forward to an all-new chapter”.  The new concept is certainly eye-catching and Kia continues to excel in attractive, yet affordable quality cars. We have Kia contract hire on the site now on all of their current range, including Picanto, Sportage, Sorento, Carens, C’eed, Rio, Soul and Venga.

New Kia Sportage

Kia is bringing out their fourth consecutive model to be developed on UK roads, with the new Kia Sportage. Neil Kent, Product Specialist, from Kia Motors (UK) said,” Once we had completed testing for ride quality, steering and dynamics with our European colleagues,vehicles were then brought to the UK for final set-up, benchmarking and evaluation. UK testing is invaluable as it allows us to ensure we have the right levels of comfort and performance for the very specific road conditions we have here”.

Kia Sportage on UK road testing

The new Kia Sportage has a striking design, a great on the road ability and looks likely to continue the success of the outgoing model and will be built at the state-of-the-art Zilina plant in Slovakia. This new model follows on from the other successful launches of the Soul, Venga and Sorento.

Kia Cadenza

Kia Motors Corporation has released the first image of its new stylish saloon,the Cadenza. This all-new luxury saloon will make its debut at motor shows across the Middle East towards the end of this year.

The Cadenza has a bold headlamp design with LED surrounds plus a prominent grille and attractive tail-lights. Luxury features include heated steering wheel, power extendable seat cushions, automated defogging of the windscreen and ventilated front seats to cool you down on a hot day.

Currently Kia has no plans to bring this car into the UK, but the model shows that Kia is developing its design-led philosophy across all parts of the globe. Next year Kia will be launching the Venga and all-new Sorento.