BUSINESS MOTOR
Top honours for Kia Motors
Kia Motors has been awarded top honors in two categories at this
year’s red dot product design competition in Germany.
* Car maker takes home two prestigious design awards
* New Kia Optima sedan wins ‘best of the best’ title
* Kia Sportage claims a further red dot award
* Four Kia vehicles now honored with design accolades
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New Kia
Optima sedan |
The competition’s jury of respected international design experts
bestowed coveted red dot awards on the Kia Sportage compact CUV and Kia
Optima sedan. The judges also paid a special tribute to the new mid-size
Kia Optima sedan, which claimed the 2011 red dot ‘best of the best’
title, the competition’s highest distinction, for which only the best
products in each category are eligible.
These latest wins bring the number of Kia models to receive a red dot
award to four - with the Kia Venga winning in 2010 and the Kia Soul in
2009. The Kia Optima and the new Sportage also won 2011 iF product
design awards last December.
“We are extremely proud of the red dot awards for the new Kia Optima
and Sportage. They are a great acknowledgement of the hard work of our
international design teams and an endorsement of our design strategy,”
says Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer, Kia Motors Corporation.
“Naturally, we are particularly thrilled about the ‘best of the best’
award for our new sedan.
The Kia Optima exudes a bold, athletic energy and its blend of simple
and fluid lines and elegant but uncomplicated shapes draw the attention
of the eye in much the same fashion as a perfectly tailored, fine
Italian suit.”
Kia Motors Corporation Senior Executive Vice President and COO,
Thomas Oh, underlines the significance of design in terms of Kia’s
market position.
“These red dot design awards are a fantastic success for our brand.
They represent yet another independent endorsement of the ground
breaking design and excellent value for money Kia vehicles offer. The
special award for the Kia Optima, in particular, will surely add
momentum to the ongoing launch our new sedan in the highly competitive
D-segment across the globe.”
Coveted worldwide: the red dot award
The red dot product design awards are one of the world’s major design
contests and have been held by the Design Centre of North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany since 1955. This year, about 1,700
manufacturers from 60 countries, working across a variety of product
sectors, vied for the awards with a total of 4,433 product entries.
The judging was entrusted to an international jury of highly
respected design experts who scrutinized and tested the products, and
judged them according to criteria such as their level of innovation,
functionality, ergonomics, durability, ecological compatibility and
intuitive handling. Only products featuring the highest standard of
design are eligible for the coveted red dot awards.
Ideal Motors partners with AA
Harshini Perera
The tsunami and earthquake in Japan will not have a major impact on
the Sri Lankan vehicle industry. The vehicle market will bounce back to
normal soon, Ideal Motors Chairman Nalin Welgama told Daily News
Business.
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Ideal Motors Chairman Nalin Welgama
exchanging the MoU agreement with the Automobile Association
of Ceylon President Dhammika Attygalle. DSL Chairman Duglas
Saroj Perera and Ideal Motors Deputy Chairman Aravinda de
Silva look on. |
Ideal Motors entered into a strategic partnership with the Automobile
Association (AA) of Ceylon for transfer and implementation of superior
automobile technology to the semi urban and rural areas of the country.
The strategic partnership will be an investment of Rs 20 million
initially. The training on this new technology will start in April at
the facilities of Automobile Association until the establishment of a
new training centre in Colombo.
The fully-fledged automobile training centre will be an investment of
Rs 20 million. It is in the planning stage and will be in force by
August this year.
Ideal Motors, the distributor of Mahindra and Mahindra vehicles have
sold 5000 units for 2010 and will double the amount during this year.
“We understood this as the best time to introduce training on
mechatronics which is the technology of modern vehicles, based on
mechanics and electronics to the country. We will be giving training to
young mechanics and engineers on using smart tester and diagnostics
tools,” he said.
Welgama said that this will generate new job opportunities in the
country going in line with the Government policy of ‘Transferring
technology to the villages’, as the AA Ceylon covers the entire country
with their services. This will be able to generate 50 job opportunities
initially and expected to be much more in the future. |