Did you know that Kia is the second largest automaker in South Korea? Did you also know that Kia comes from several Korean words meaning ‘to rise out of Asia?’ Well, not too many people know these important facts about Kia Motors, so don’t feel bad.
In fact, Kia wants you to feel good about them and all of their little known facts.
So, here are a few of them for you to ponder and appreciate:
• Kia is South Korea’s oldest car company.
• Kia began in 1944 as a maker of bicycle parts.
• Over 32% of Kia’s stock is owned by Hyundai Motor Company.
• Kia sells more than one and a half billion vehicles a year.
• Kia’s revenue for 2012 was more than $42 Billion.
• Kia has a manufacturing plant in Georgia, U.S.A.
• Kia makes cars, SUVs, commercial vehicles, electric and hybrid vehicles.
Enough fun facts for now. Kia is interesting, though. “To rise out of Asia” is a very telling name, however. That’s just what Kia did. They not only rose out of Asia, but they rose out of poverty, Japanese occupation and a third world existence, into what might be called a Phoenix-like rise to prosperity. Kia, not unlike Hyundai and several other companies in the region, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and marched into a first world life, full of opportunity and world trade. They weren’t handed the opportunity, they made it for themselves. Where there was nothing – in South Korea after the war – there is something now. There are jobs and food and freedom and cars. Cars that sell all over the world. Cars that have made South Korea a leading manufacturer to be reckoned with on a par with other first world countries. Cars that have passed down the opportunity of free markets and business that the South Koreans had not even know existed before.
More facts provided by Team KIA of NH:
• Six Kia brands won the Top Safety Pick Award from IIHS
• Kia builds and sells military vehicles to South Korea.
• Kia built 26 cars in 1986 and built over 90,000 the next year.
• The Kia plant in Georgia cost over one billion dollars.
• Kia sold over one and a half million vehicles in 2012.
• In 1951, Kia built complete bicycles.
• In 1957, Kia built motorcycles.
• In 1962, Kia built trucks.
• In 1974, Kia began to build cars.
Kia. How do they do that?
