Kia contemplates premium brand

Kia is steadily taking its own brand upmarket, as it demonstrated this month by launching its new rear-wheel drive K9 luxury sedan in Korea.

Chief design officer Peter Schreyer talked to motoring.com.au about the brand's aspirations, acknowledging that Kia is improving its image in many ways. "I think there is a movement [at Kia towards luxury]. We are not a premium brand, we are far away from becoming one," said Schreyer.

But there is a discussion occurring within the company about whether Kia needs a premium sub-brand: "That's the question. I think Kia - the way it develops now - should stay honest and say 'this is what we do'. We cannot from one day to the other say we are a premium brand like BMW or Mercedes. You cannot jump so far, the customers would not be able to follow.

"But on the other hand we are doing the K9 which is a big heavy luxury sedan. It's a good looking car. And I think for the Korean market to start with [a luxury brand] maybe makes sense to do it. In a market like the European market it doesn’t fit," stated Kia's most senior car designer.

On the subject of premium car design, Ford VP of design J Mays took a swipe at Kia's parent company, Hyundai, in India earlier this year accusing it of copying Ford and incapable of developing a premium image.

When asked if he agreed with J Mays view, Schreyer said: "No I don’t. Today you cannot say who is copying from whom. A lot of things look the same. Maybe some are copying from us too? It's not the Koreans anymore who are copying so much."

Let the war of words continue...

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