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 in 1944 as manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycles. In 1952, Kia changed its name from Kyungsung Precision Industry,and later built motorcycles, trucks and cars. Starting in 1986, in partnership with Ford, Kia produced several Mazda derived vehicles for both domestic sales in South Korea and exports into other countries. These models include the Pride (based on the Mazda 121) and Avella, which were sold in North America and Australasia as the Ford Festiva and Ford Aspire.

When introduced for the 2000 model year for Korea and the United States, it was a hatchback version of the Kia Sephia and Kia Shuma (pronounced Shü-mä´), and replaced the Sephia. It was developed from Kia’s previous hatchback, the Mentor (Sephia Leo). Several years later, Kia reveals the minor redesigned model. Renamed as Spectra Wing / Shuma II. Its successor is also the Kia Cerato as the Spectra / Sephia II models.

The Pride was replaced in 2001 by the Rio, which is also called Pride in South Korea, and by the Picanto.
The Pride was sold in four-door sedan (LX, GTX, β), three and five-door hatchback (CD-5) and five-door station wagon body styles. Originally powered by 1.1 or 1.3-liter carbureted petrol engines, the 1.1 unit was dropped in 1995 and the other received fuel injection in order to meet EU emissions requirements.

Production continued until the summer of 2000 when Kia launched the larger Rio. The Rio competed indirectly in the compact car segment against cars like the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf instead of the smaller subcompact model, where the Pride competed against the Volkswagen Lupo and also sold as the Ford Festiva.

The green SUV concept based on a model Borrego, has a fuel cell developed by the 4th generation Hyundai-Kia (154 hp, 115 kW) and a new battery Lithium-Ion Polymer. He then enjoys an autonomy of 820 km (510 miles) and can start in temperatures of -30o C. Not bad! As part of its testing program, Kia will put on the roads in 2010 a fleet of Kia Borrego FCEV.

Cee´d is a great success in Europe and is the first Kia (and Korean car) which really could compete with the best cars in the Golf-category, not only because of the now famous seven year warranty. The car is very well accepted in the motor-press for it´s roomy interior, smooth engines, good standard equipment compared to price and feel of quality. The engines, especially diesels, are also fuel saving, an important advantage these days.

It is available as a five-door hatchback, three-door hatchback (”pro_cee’d”), and five-door estate (”cee’d SW”), with a choice of up to five engines (three petrol and two diesel), four trim levels (S, GS, LS, SR) and either manual or automatic transmissions — and is sold in over 20 variants of the above in some markets. Kia used the Paris Motor Show 2006 to preview a five-door estate variant in production form, and a three-door concept, both of which were to be on sale from Autumn 2007, combining with the five door hatchback model to give a model range of over 50 variants in some markets. The Hyundai i30 shares the platform with cee’d.

The car was designed in Frankfurt, Germany (”in Europe for Europeans”) with Miklós Kovács leading the design team.Cars are manufactured in the Kia’s factory in Teplička nad Váhom, Slovakia.