Kia News

2011 Kia Sportage named "2010 Top Safety Pick" by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in U.S.

• - All-New compact CUV receives highest recognition from IIHS
• - Sportage receives top ratings for front, side, rollover, and rear impact protection
• - CUV is fourth new generation Kia vehicle to be named "Top Safety Pick"

(SEOUL) August 18, 2010 -- Joining the 2010 Forte compact sedan (Cerato in Australia), 2010 Souland 2011 Sorento, the all-new 2011 Sportage CUV has been recognized as a "Top Safety Pick" by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the small SUV category.

The Sportage, which was launched in Australia earlier this month, received the organization's top honor by earning "Good" ratings - the highest achievable - in frontal, side, rear and rollover impact crash safety tests.

The Sedona minivan (badged as Carnival in Australia) was the first Kia vehicle to receive the IIHS "Top Safety Pick," along with the "Safest Minivan Ever Tested" distinction from IIHS, shortly after its launch in 2006, and again in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

"The Kia brand is committed to providing consumers with the highest levels of passenger safety by providing a comprehensive list of cutting-edge technologies and features for increased crash protection," said Michael Sprague, vice-president, marketing & communications, Kia Motors America (KMA).

"The 2011 Sportage's sleek and modern appearance continues Kia's design-led transformation while staying true to the company's core philosophy of providing consumers with exciting, fun-to-drive vehicles with high levels of value, quality and safety."

Ratings from the Institute are based on results from frontal, side and rear impact crash tests, and for 2010 a good performance in a roof strength test - to measure protection in a rollover - also was required to win. Each vehicle's overall evaluation was based on various measurements specific to each crash angle, and overall impact on crash test dummies inside the vehicle at the time of collision. All vehicles must have electronic stability control available to be eligible.

Like all Kia vehicles, the 2011 Sportage is equipped with a long list of standard safety equipment. Driver and passenger front airbags, front seat-mounted side airbags, side curtain airbags and front active headrests, four-wheel Antilock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC) with rol-over sensor, Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), and a Brake Assist System (BAS), which recognizes an emergency stop and delivers significant braking power. Hill Start Assist Control (HAC) and Downhill Brake Control (DBC) also come standard on all models, the former assisting in preventing the vehicle from rolling backward when trying to pull away from an uphill gradient, while the latter locks the vehicle at a slow speed down steep grades so the driver can focus their attention on steering.

To assist drivers when the vehicle is in reverse, an available back-up warning sensor helps the driver avoid contact with certain objects in the vehicle's path by triggering an audible warning when the vehicle approaches an obstruction, while an available rear-view back-up camera enables drivers to view behind the vehicle.

European Automobile Manufacturers' Association reported recently that Kia, together with its parent Hyundai Motor Company, outsold Toyota in Europe in the first half of the year. In addition to that, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group also beat its main Japanese rival in the fast growing China market!

According to the report, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group was the best-selling Asian automaker in Europe during the first six months of the fiscal year. The South Korean auto giant sold nearly 3,000 automobiles more than Toyota, which saw its sales plummeting 11 percent, compared to a year ago. Speaking of decreasing Toyota sales,sales of other Japanese carmakers, such as Honda and Suzuki, also fell sharply. Their sales plunged by 21 and 20 percent, respectively.

During the first six months, Kia Motors sold 138,357 vehicles, while Hyundai Motor Company sold 191,338 vehicles in the European market. According to European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, the combined total of 329,695 units is 2,904 more than Toyota's sales of 326,791.

Both South Korean carmakers also managed to increase their market shares. Hyundai's market share rose 0,3 percent to 2,6 percent, while Kia's market share soared 0,2 percent to 1,8 percent.

Hyundai-Kia sales in China

As mentioned above, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group -HKAG also beat Toyota in China. During the first six months of 2010, HKAG sold a total of 489,500 vehicles in China, where sales have grown 39 percent compared to a year ago! In June alone, combined sales of Hyundai-Kia cars soared 16.2 percent year on year to 79.086 units.

Combined sales of Hyundai and Kia vehicles in China are expected to top 1 million units this year. To achieve the 1 million sales, both automakers plan to introduce several new models to Chinese consumers. According to some automobile media reports, Kia is going to introduce a modified Cerato model, slightly updated Forte sedan and new Sportage crossover by the year's end in China, while Hyundai is all set to roll-out new Sonata sedan and Accent sub-compact sedan

A Victorian based driver education program designed to change the driving attitudes and habits of young people is being praised by parents, experts and educators alike.

Kia Young Drivers was born following a change in focus by Drive Skill International, a corporate driver training group tasked with curbing poor habits within corporate fleets. After seeing a reduction in some clients' vehicle insurance claims of up to 78% the organisation decided to diversify and try to make a difference with young drivers.

In early 2007, with 20 years of corporate experience, Kia Young Drivers began targeting young teens who either had or were soon eligible to get their learner permit.

Since then the program has taken off with more than 3000 students expected to take part in the course during 2010, an increase of 1000 students from 2009.

Kia Young Drivers Chief Instructor, Geoff Fickling, says the key to reaching young drivers is in understanding how they think.

"All young drivers fall into two categories depending their core belief or 'Motorvation' as we call it. They are all born with this Motorvation, based on their interest in cars, personality type and gender," Mr Fickling said.

"We have 'Demure Drivers' who believe they'll be safe because they're more careful than other drivers, and we have 'Dominant Drivers', the most aggressive of whom we call 'Driveaholics', who believe they'll be safe because they're more skilled than other drivers.

"While Demure Drivers are reasonably cautious, they have no idea of what to do if things go wrong, and are scared to learn. Dominant Drivers, on the other hand, are generally more skilled, but they feel invincible, which leads to risk-taking.

"There is a lot of comment in the media at the moment about how best to save our youth from themselves on the road. Increasing speed limits and encouraging advanced driver training is the deadliest of combinations. The key is understanding young people's behaviour types and the attitudes associated with them.

"Motorvate Training achieves this by concentrating on attitude and behaviour change before addressing skill and knowledge development. Because we understand how young drivers think, research shows that Motorvate Training can dramatically reduce crash rates."

The one day courses run for six hours fitting neatly into a normal school day.

Kia Motors Australia has provided the program with five cars. Two Rios with ABS and two without which help reinforce the benefits of technology while teaching depth perception, speed judgement and vision. The fifth vehicle is an eight-seat Grand Carnival people mover to assist with logistics.

Kia Motors Australia President and CEO Mr MK Kim said the program has a very distinct point of difference and is a worthy project to support.

"Being the father of an 'L' plate driver myself, I hold any program which helps young drivers make more responsible decisions on the road in high regard," he said.

"By supporting this program we are undoubtedly saving lives, and not just the lives of young drivers but also the innocent 'others' who are often a part of accidents by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"The Kia Rio is also the right car for the job. It's our entry level vehicle so it's highly likely that quite a few of the people attending the course will be able to afford a car like this very early in their driving life."

More than 80 schools currently participate in the Kia Young Drivers program throughout Victoria but due to the program's success Mr Fickling is in the process of rolling the program out to other states, and making the course more "mobile", allowing it to visit places where there is only limited open space for the practical component.

Kia's light passenger vehicle the Rio has found itself in greener pastures following a recent upgrade which included meeting the requirements of a more stringent emissions standard.

From April production this year all Kia Rios will satisfy the latest emission specification, Euro IV. In doing so the pint sized passenger car has earned itself five stars and worked its way into the top 20 "green cars" according to the Green Vehicle Guide, an Australian Government initiative.

The Rio joins the list in 15^th position just a couple of spots behind the Soul in 13^th making Kia the only manufacturer to have two mainstream vehicles in the top 20 which aren't either hybrid or "green modified".

The five seat Rio with the 1.4 litre 4-cylinder petrol engine matched to a five speed manual transmission found in the S and LE Sport models, leads the charge boasting urban fuel consumption of 8.6 litres per 100km and combined urban and open road consumption of 6.6 litres per 100km.

These provided Rio with an overall rating of 158 grams of CO2 per kilometre and a 7.5 out of 10 Greenhouse Rating with one being the worst and 10 meaning the best.

The 1.4 litre petrol engine also returned an equal best Air Pollution Rating of 8.5 out of 10. This rating measures the different emissions components including carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). It also analyses the amount of particulate matter like soot, released into the atmosphere.

Kia Motors Australia President and CEO Mr MK Kim said the Corporation has been committed to answering the global challenge for several years.

"Kia Motors Corporation is committed to designing and building cars that not only offer increased performance and safety but also offer improved eco-friendly designs and engineering," Mr Kim said.

"In 2009, we unveiled the Forte (Cerato) LPi Hybrid, the culmination of 20 years of effort aimed at

developing green vehicles with high fuel economy and low emissions. In that same year we managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10.8% per vehicle compared to 2008."

"This attitude also flows down through manufacturing. From 2008 all Kia production and after sales sites in Korea have maintained an inventory of greenhouse gasses and have carried out third party assurance reviews. By 2011 the scope of those reviews will include all of our plants including Slovakia, China and the USA."

The popularity of Kia Motors Australia continued to increase in April with year-to-date sales figures up 23.8% compared to the same period last year according to April VFACTS figures.

Kia Cerato continues to shine in terms of sales growth following the "next generation" new model launched in February 2009 up 60.9% compared to last year's April figures.

Cerato's sporty cousin the Koup, maintains its strength in the 'Sports vehicles under $80,000' segment finishing third behind Mercedes-Benz CLC-Class and BMW 1 Series Coupe/Convertible with 133 units sold in April.

Korea's credentials as a serious car manufacturer have received another boost in April with the country finishing second behind Japan in the "New vehicle sales by country of origin" segment.

55,817 Korean-made vehicles have been sold throughout Australia year-to-date up 70.3% on the same period in 2009.