Kia Motors
The Power to Surprise
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| Public | |
| Traded as | KRX: |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | December 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry |
| Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Hyoung-Keun (Hank) Lee, Vice Chairman and CEO Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer |
| Products | Automobiles Luxury cars Commercial vehicles |
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Production output
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 2,827,321 units (2013) |
| Revenue |
US$46.9 billion (2013)
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US$ 3.1 billion (2013)
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US$ 3.8 billion (2013)
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| Total assets |
US$ 35.6 billion (2013)
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| Total equity |
US$ 19.9 billion (2013)
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Number of employees
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33,255 (as of December 2013) |
| Website | www.kia.com |
| Kia Motors | |
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| Hangul | 기아자동차 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 起亞自動車 |
| Revised Romanization | Gia Jadongcha |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kia Chadongch'a |
Kia Motor Corporation (Hangul: 기아자동차; Hanja: 起亞自動車, IPA: [ki.a], literally "Kia automobile"; stylized as KIΛ), headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 3.3 million vehicles in 2015. As of December 2015[update], the Kia Motor Corporation is 33.88% minority owned by the Hyundai Motor Company totaling just over $6 billion USD. Kia Motor Corporation is a minority owner of more than twenty Hyundai subsidiaries ranging from 4.9% up to 45.37% totaling more than $8.3 billion USD.
According to Kia Motors, the name "Kia" derives from the Sino-Korean characters ki (起, "to come out") and a (亞, which stands for (East) Asia), it is roughly translated as "arise or come up out of (East) Asia" or "rising out of (East) Asia".
Kia was founded in December 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry, a manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts, eventually producing Korea's first domestic bicycle, the Samchully, in 1951. In 1952, Kyungsung Precision Industry changed its name to Kia Industries, and later built Honda-licensed small motorcycles (starting in 1957), Mazda-licensed trucks (1962) and cars (1974). The company opened its first integrated automotive assembly plant in 1973, the Sohari Plant. Kia built the small Brisa range of cars until 1981, when production came to an end after the new military dictator Chun Doo-hwan enforced industry consolidation. This forced Kia to give up passenger cars and focus entirely on light trucks. Prior to the forced 1981 shutdown, Kia rounded out its passenger car lineup with two other foreign models assembled under license: the Fiat 132 and the Peugeot 604.
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Wikipedia