Top honours for Kia Motors at red dot design awards

• Car maker takes home two prestigious design awards
  
• New Optima sedan wins ‘best of the best’ title
  
• Kia Sportage claims a further red dot award
  
• Four Kia vehicles now honoured with design accolades
  

Frankfurt – March 15, 2011 – Kia Motors has been awarded top honors in two categories at this year’s red dot product design competition in Germany.

The jury of respected design experts bestowed coveted red dot awards on the new Kia Sportage compact SUV and the Optima sedan.  The judges also paid a special tribute to the new Optima, giving it the red dot ‘best of the best’ title, the competition’s highest distinction for rewarding groundbreaking design, for which only to the best products in each category are eligible.

These latest wins bring the number of Kia models to receive a red dot award to four – with the Kia Venga winning in 2010 and the Kia Soul in 2009.  The Kia Optima and the new Sportage also won 2011 iF product design awards last December.

“We are extremely proud of the red dot awards for the Kia Optima and the new Sportage.  They are a great acknowledgement of the work our international design teams have done and an endorsement of our design strategy,” says Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer, Kia Motors Corporation. “Naturally, we are particularly thrilled about the ‘best of the best’ award for our new sedan. The Kia Optima exudes a bold, athletic energy.  And its blend of simple and fluid lines and elegant but uncomplicated shapes draw the attention of the eye in much the same fashion as a perfectly tailored, fine Italian suit.”

Benny Oeyen, Vice President Marketing and Product Planning, Kia Motors Europe, underlines the significance of design in terms of Kia’s market position.  “These red dot design awards are a fantastic success for our brand.  They represent yet another independent endorsement of the groundbreaking design and excellent value for money Kia offers – and the strong demand for both the new Sportage and Optima models shows what good taste our customers have!  The special award for the Kia Optima will make it easier for us to launch our new sedan in the highly competitive D-segment.”

Coveted worldwide: the red dot award

The red dot product design awards are one of the world’s major design contests and have been held by the Design Centre of North Rhine-Westphalia since 1955.  This year, about 1,700 manufacturers from 60 countries, working across a variety of product sectors, vied for the award with a total of 4,433 product entries.

The judging was entrusted to an international jury of highly respected design experts. They scrutinized and tested the products, and judged them according to criteria such as their level of innovation, functionality, ergonomics, durability, ecological compatibility and intuitive handling. Only products featuring the highest standard of design are eligible for the coveted red dot.

Editors’ Notes

Kia Motors Europe
Kia Motors Europe is the European sales, marketing, and service arm of Kia Motors Corporation. With its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, it covers 25 markets in Europe.

About Kia Motors Corporation
Kia Motors Corporation (www.kia.com) – a maker of quality vehicles for the young-at-heart – was founded in 1944 and is Korea's oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. As part of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia aims to become one of the world's premier automotive brands. Over 2.1 million vehicles a year are produced in 13 manufacturing and assembly operations in eight countries which are then sold and serviced through a network of distributors and dealers covering 172 countries.

Press Contact

Ilona Tzudnowski
PR Manager Europe
Tel.: +49 69 850 928 357
E-mail: i.tzudnowski@kia-europe.com

Kia Motors Europe GmbH
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 11
60486 Frankfurt, Germany