Thursday, November 29, 2012

All-new Kia cee’d Design Story

Ceed
Kia’s all new cee’d premiered at the Geneva Motor Show this past March and quickly captured the attention of automobile enthusiasts worldwide with its enhanced design. The cee’d is a contender the world’s most fiercely crowded and competitive European C-segment (mid-size car) market, so creating an appealing design was vital. Today on Buzz, we’re going to unfold the first part of the cee’d’s design story from the outside-in, and breakdown its sportiness and unique design elements.

The main concept of the cee’d exterior design is ‘solid, fast and dynamic’. New design elements such as the ‘DLO (Day Light Opening)’ (overall shape of the car’s side windows) was extended to the front for a more dynamic and masculine appearance. The steep shoulder lines add to the ‘open’ look of the new cee’d.

Designers also focused on the exterior, as they wanted to create a well-equipped yet simple feel. For example, the DLO, exclusive headlamps and a chrome coating on the front grilles were all utilized to create a more luxurious expression.

The designers went to great lengths to create a more dynamic and sporty look by making the frontal design of the car lower and wider. The key design elements that define the character line of the exterior, including the radiator grille and headlamps, were created to achieve the highest aesthetic value possible. The location of the A pillar was pulled forward to create a more dynamic aspect, creating a cab-forward design. The volume of the different parts of the vehicle was then adjusted to create a balanced appearance.

The lower part of the cee’d was designed with the intention of creating stable and tough expression that would match any car on the road. The rear design was created with an emphasis on infusing strong and orderly look that would match well with the dynamic and solid display of its front and side.

Simplistic yet elegant, the design of the new cee’d manages to stand out from the crowd with its distinctive design elements and in particular boasting Kia’s signature front grille design. It can undoubtedly compete against all models in its class.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Kia to launch 51 new or updated models by the end of 2016

Kia
Kia aims to sustain its growth surge by launching 51 new or updated models before the end of 2016. So far, it has been so successful that in 2012, Kia is set to achieve its fourth straight record year of production, sales and profits. Under this plan, Kia will enter new niches. Kia has a new hot hatchback based on the new Procee’d making it arrival next summer. In 2014, Kia will produce an electric version of the next Soul and this would also be when a rear-wheel-drive sports car will be presented. Kia would also be making more derivatives of current or updated cars. For the European market, Kia will start by introducing the next Procee’d and an all-new seven-seat Carens in the first half of 2013. Before the end of 2012, Kia will reveal the second-generation Soul. It’s likely to arrive in the UK by 2014 at the earliest. Kia will also update and enhance three of its existing models. For non-European markets, Kia has recently unveiled a facelifted version of the K7/Cadenza executive saloon and a new K3/Cerato, which is a compact four-door car that has plenty of the same parts and systems as the European Cee’d. The flagship K9 saloon, which started sellingin South Korea earlier in 2012, will start exports as the Quoris. Kia took fewer than two years before it could replace nearly all of its European range so it will be 2015-2016 before huge changes are made to the newest models. After the Soul is replaced, it will be the Venga’s turn next.

Courtesy of 4wheelsnews