Kia may be best known in Australia for the Kia Carnival people mover and the value for money Rio small car.
Founded in 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry, Kia is currently Korea's second largest car manufacturer and it's oldest. From the company's production of Korea's first domestic bicycle, Kia moved on to producing Korea's first motorcycle and the country's first truck. Kia then became the first company in Korea to locally produce petrol car engines and the first domestic diesel engine.
In 1979, Kia's quality car production was recognised by the fact that two of the world's leading European car makers chose the Korean car maker to build their 'range topper' models on their behalf - the Peugeot 604 and Fiat 132.
But it was in the 1980's that Kia's growth really took off. In 1986 Ford joined the list of car makers who looked to Kia to produce cars to be sold under their name, with the Festiva joining Ford's line up first in the USA, then across the world, including in Australia for where Kia produced two generations of Ford's entry level car.
Today, Kia produces a remarkably diverse range of vehicles sold in 190 countries around the world.
Kia has three production centres in Korea: Hwasung, which has an annual production of 600,000 units, Sohari, which produces 340,000 units; and Kwangju, which manufacturers 210,000 commercial vehicles every year. In addition, the company has a global R&D operation centered around a hub in Namyang, Korea. Namyang coordinates its domestic R&D operations with two R&D centres in the United States, one in Germany and one in Japan. An additional testing facility in California's Mojave Desert was opened in 2003. Kia also has 12 overseas subsidiaries and a global network of 156 distributors.
Kia has now been in Australia for ten years and there are more than 120,000 cars on Australian roads. Kia is committed to a bright future in Australia with 125 dealerships nationwide and the announcement of its ongoing sponsorship of Australia's largest annual sporting event, the Australian Open.
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