Brief History About Kia Motors
Kia Motors was founded in South Korea in 1944. The name Kia roughly translates to “to come out of the east.”
The company initially manufactured steel tubes, bicycles and bicycle parts. It later went onto build motorcycles for Honda and trucks and cars for Mazda.
In 1973 Kia started small car production until 1981. It was then forced to build trucks under Korea’s military rule.
In 1986 it partnered with Ford/Mazda and built passenger cars again.
It wasn’t until 1994 when Kia started to sell its own brand of cars, but unfortunately despite great sales declared bankruptcy in 1997.
In 1998 it did a deal with Hyundai, who took a large chunk of Kia ownership, while Kia acquired interests in many of Hyundai’s companies as part of the deal.
Kia has since enjoyed praise for its reliability and is now one of Americas biggest sellers of passenger cars, with a growing market share in Europe.
