Catalog KIA 2024

The South Korean company Kia is best known for its passenger cars, which are very popular around the world. It is the second most important (after Hyundai) and oldest car manufacturer in the country, having managed to survive despite many difficulties along the way.

It all started in 1944 with a small enterprise, Kyungsung Precision Industry (KPI), located on the outskirts of Seoul and engaged in the production of pipes. A little later, the production of bicycle frames was also launched, which were produced for other companies, such as Samchuly, which today is the leader in the production of bicycles in South Korea. In 1950, KPI managed to launch the production of models of its own design, manually assembled. Then in 1957, the company (which changed its name to Kia Industrial Company after the end of the Korean War in 1953) began producing motorcycles. At first, these were small and inexpensive models produced under license from Honda, then their own solution appeared, which received the simple name C-100 and became the first Korean motorcycle.

The beginning of the 60s was marked by an increase in KIA's interests in the production of cars. By 1961, a tiny three-wheeled truck had been developed – in a country still recovering from devastation, such models promised to become very popular. However, the company's position was so unstable that the release of even such a simple model turned out to be a difficult task for it. Government intervention helped, thanks to whose support it was possible not only to establish the production of three-wheeled trucks (they were produced until 1973), but also to establish the production of four-wheeled models, initially from foreign components.

Then in 1971, the first truck of its own design, the Titan, was introduced, which became very popular in Korea. A little later, KIA launched the production of engines, and in 1974, the production of the Brisa passenger car. To be fair, it should be noted that this model was not completely Korean; it was created with the active participation of Mazda engineers. Nevertheless, the solution turned out to be very successful and was even sold for export. Simultaneously with the production of its own models, KIA was quite active in producing cars under license from Peugeot and FIAT. However it was decided to finally abandon motorcycles.

In 1981, the company curtailed the production of passenger cars and completely focused on commercial vehicles; by that time, the model range also included a minibus and a pickup truck. Then, in 1985, after part of the company's shares were acquired by other car manufactures, the decision was made to return to the small car market. The Pride model appeared, built on the basis of the Ford Festiva, which became extremely successful and was produced until 2000 (then it was produced under license for another 5 years by the Iranian SAIPA). This was followed by other, no less popular creations.

It would seem that the company managed to achieve success, but 1997 turned out to be a very difficult year for it. It even got to the point that KIA was forced to declare bankruptcy. But it managed to survive thanks to the fact that its assets were absorbed by the Hyundai Group. This is how the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group appeared, which still exists today. Today, not only cars are produced under the KIA brand, but also various related products that are actively sold in various countries around the world.