Kia Motors (Korean: 기아자동차, IPA: [ki.a]), headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 1.4 million vehicles in 2010. The company is partly owned by the Hyundai Motor Group and since August 2009 has been led by Hyoung-Keun (Hank) Lee.
The word Kia derives from Korean words meaning "to arise to the world from Asia".
According to Kia Motors, the name "Kia" der...
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Kia Motors (Korean: 기아자동차, IPA: [ki.a]), headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 1.4 million vehicles in 2010. The company is partly owned by the Hyundai Motor Group and since August 2009 has been led by Hyoung-Keun (Hank) Lee.
The word Kia derives from Korean words meaning "to arise to the world from Asia".
According to Kia Motors, the name "Kia" derives from the Sino-Korean words ki ("to come out") and a (which stands for Asia), it is roughly translated as "arise or come up out of Asia" or "rising out of Asia".
South Korea's oldest car company, Kia was founded on June 9, 1944 as a manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts by hand – and has operated as one of the country's Chaebols since. In 1951 Kia began building complete bicycles. In 1952, Kia changed its name from Kyungsung Precision Industry, and later built motorcycles (starting in 1957), trucks (1962) and cars (1974). The...
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