“I Pledge”: Kia Canada is proud to be the new National Presenting Sponsor of MADD Canada’s School Assembly program – educating students nationally and collecting signatures of pledges to drive safe and sober. We challenge you, all your staff and business partners to drive change – visit www.Facebook.com/kiacanada today to take the pledge online!
NEW 2012 KIA RIO IS HERE!
The new Rio model is longer by 20 mm, wider by 25 mm, and lower by -15 mm and features a wheelbase extended by 70 mm to 2,570 mm – greatly enhancing passenger space and cargo capacity.
Manufactured for the first time with a choice of 5-door and 3-door bodystyles, the new Rio is set to completely redefine its position and Kia is confident of capturing a larger share of the growing B-market segment.
To lower fuel consumption and help achieve Rio’s class-leading emissions, Kia engineers have carried out an extensive programme to shed weight across a broad range of components. As a result, although new Rio is a significantly larger car than the third-generation model with extra equipment, its weight-gain has been kept to a minimum
2012 Soul
Like the Honda Element it was tall and blocky, had a four-cylinder engine and was available in front or all-wheel-drive. Since then, the Nissan Cube and Scion xB have joined the fray.
But the others trail far behind. The Soul is on track to hit 10,000 sales this year — more than all them combined.
And Kia isn’t letting up. The 2012 Soul gets a number of serious upgrades, including two new engines, two new transmissions, a mild facelift inside and out and some very interesting new technologies, including an integrated stop/start system.
The exterior gets new fascias and lights front and rear. The front looks wider and with bigger ‘fog’ lights and the corporate grill, lower and more aggressive.
The heated seats now have two positions but the big news here is the availability of a new premium audio system, a navigation system with seven-inch screen and Kia’s UVO infotainment system.
The available eight-speaker Infinity audio system has a sub-woofer, external amp and lights in the front-door-mounted speakers controlled by a switch on the instrument panel.
The voice-activated UVO system incorporates a 4.3-in color touch screen and rear camera display. It is packaged with the Infinity audio system
The 2012 Soul gets a pair of new engines. The ‘base’ 1.6-litre four has been replaced by the company’s new ‘gamma’ four with the same displacement but 16 more horsepower thanks to direct injection and variable valve timing.
This is the same engine used in the new 2012 Rio5. The old 2.0-litre four is swapped for the 2.0-litre ‘nu’ engine of similar displacement, shared with the Hyundai Elantra.
Here again there are more horses in the corral — 22 of them — bringing the total to 164. The five-speed manual gearbox has been replaced by a six-speed and the old four-speed automatic by a six-speed unit.
Both engines can be paired with either transmission. Not only has performance benefitted, so has fuel economy. The 1.6-litre by 0.3 litres/100 km in the city and 0.7 on the highway and the 2.0-litre engine by 0.7 in both city and highway.
Available in limited quantities while Kia judges consumer acceptance and interest is Idle Stop and Go (ISG), which Kia refers to as the first stage of vehicle electrification.
The start/stop system incorporates a wide variety of sensors and alterations from piston rings to starter motor and alternator management. It shuts the engine down when the vehicle comes to rest and restarts the engine instantly when your foot comes off the brake pedal.
Kia is coy about the mileage gains but hints at the 5-10 per cent range if the drive includes a lot of long traffic lights.
On the road the additional power and gears are readily apparent at both take-off and when climbing hills or passing. The ISG system is similarly transparent. The engine idles so smoothly you only notice it shut down when the tachometer plunges to zero. The restart is instant, accompanied by the slight sound of a starter motor.
On the safety front the 2012 Soul gets not only ABS and electronic stability control, but electronic brake force distribution, electronic traction control and brake assist.
The latest iteration of the company’s stability control system, called VSM (Vehicle Stability Management) incorporates electronic steering assist to counter under and over-steer tendencies on low grip surfaces.
Kia wins four design awards in new Automotive Brand Contest
Top title ‘Best of Best’ secured in the category for overall brand design
Three Kia models triumph in the category for Exterior Design
New competition promoted by the German Design Council
(SEOUL) July 20, 2011 — Kia Motors is one of the main winners in the first-ever Automotive Brand Contest. This new international brand and design competition was organised by the Rat für Formgebung (German Design Council), which is also responsible for the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German Design Award).
The judging panel of the first Automotive Brand Contest declared Kia Motors the worthy winner in two categories. In the Brand Design category, where strategy and focus of the brand’s overall design is rated, Kia was ranked ‘Best of Best’.
For the Exterior category, in which the design of the vehicle itself is the centre of attention, three Kia models were picked as winners: the compact Sportage CUV, the forthcoming Rio B-segment model (on sale from Fall 2011 in most global markets) and the all-new, athletic D-segment Kia Optima sedan. The Kia Optima and Kia Sportage have already been awarded prestigious design prizes: the red dot award (Kia Optima: ‘best of the best’) and the iF product design award.
“We are all exceedingly proud that Kia Motors has done so well in this new competition, which is very important within the automotive industry,” says Kia’s Chief Design Officer Peter Schreyer. “By changing our basic design focus, we have given our brand a face, a distinctive identity.
“The ‘Best of Best’ title for Kia’s new design identity in the Brand Design category is a great endorsement of the creative and professional work done by our entire international design team. The latest awards conferred on the Sportage and Optima, and the very first one to go to our latest model, the Rio, reflect the continuity of our efforts to uphold our own high design standards. All four awards are a fantastic acknowledgement of our strategy to position design as a core Kia brand promise,” adds Schreyer.
Three Kia award winning models: design that points to the future
The fourth-generation Kia Rio, which celebrated its world premiere at the 2011 Geneva International Motor Show, is not a further development of its predecessor, but a powerful new personality in its own right. By clearly moving away from its past, the new B-segment model epitomizes Kia’s transformation to a design and quality-led brand. The wedge-shaped profile and sleek side windows lend the newcomer dynamic flair, while the balance between window graphics, wheelbase and the vehicle’s overall proportions creates a ‘premium’ impression rarely found in this segment. Developed with the global market in mind, the Rio will be available in Europe in both three-door and five-door bodystyles, with four-door and five-door bodystyles offered in most other markets.
The newly developed Kia Optima is a model that bears no resemblance to the brand’s earlier D-segment vehicles. Peter Schreyer headed the design of the athletic sedan at the Kia design centres in Frankfurt, Germany and Irvine, USA. Immediately following its launch in the Korean market in mid-2010, the Kia Optima topped the D-segment sales chart there – the first Kia model ever to do so.
With its third-generation of the Sportage, Kia has given the popular compact CUV a complete makeover. The Sportage combines all the key off-road features – raised ground clearance, commanding driving position and heightened sense of security – with a sleek and urban-friendly design.
Winners to be presented at IAA motor show in Frankfurt
The Rat für Formgebung (German Design Council), organiser of the newly instituted Automotive Brand Contest, was founded in 1953 as an initiative of the German Federal Parliament, and today counts among the world’s leading centers of excellence for communication and knowledge transfer in the field of design.
Among the patrons of this independent institution are 170 companies from both Germany and abroad. With its competitions, such as Designpreis Deutschland (Germany’s highest official design award), its exhibitions, as well as its conferences, seminars and workshops, the German Design Council’s purpose is to spread the word about good industrial design to a broad public. The Automotive Brand Contest is open to all companies in the automobile industry and their partners, in the supply industry and in the fields of design and brand communications.
This first year’s winners of the new competition will be presented with their awards at the IAA in Frankfurt on Automotive Designers’ Night, 13 September 2011 (first press day).
