First look: Kia reveals Cerato's successor

KIA Motors has revealed the first official images of the successor for its small Cerato sedan.

Due on sale in Australia at the end of this year following its release next month in Korea, where it will be known as the Forte, the redesigned Cerato sedan was styled by ex-Volkswagen designer Peter Schreyer.

Codenamed TD, the four-door Cerato successor is the second Kia model after the recently updated Magentis to wear the company's new corporate identity, as well as the latest small Kia model to emerge on a new platform believed to be shared with parent company Hyundai's i30.

It follows the reveal of the Cee'd concept-based Kia ED two years ago at the British motor show, the first in a series of new small hatch, sedan, coupe and convertible models to appear from Kia.

It will be available with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine in Korea, but is expected to continue in Australia with a 2.0-litre engine. Kia Australia currently offers 2.0-litre Cerato hatch and sedan models, both priced at $19,490.

Meantime, the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group was last week named the world's fifth-largest car-maker by the 2008 Automotive News Global Data Book.

Hyundai-Kia sold almost four million vehicles in 2007, rocketing six places up the global sales hit parade from 11th place in 1999, and overtaking the likes of Honda, Nissan, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Chrysler and Fiat in the process.

On top of the ANGDP list again last year was Toyota, with some 9,366,000 vehicles sales, ahead of General Motors (8,902,252) and Volkswagen (6,191,618) and fourth-placed Ford (5,964,000).

Behind Hyundai-Kia (3,961,629) was Honda (3,831,000), Nissan (3,675,574), PSA (3,428,400), Chrysler (2,676,268) and Fiat (2,620,864) in tenth place.

"We are extremely proud of having achieved this goal in such a short period of time,” said Ik-Hwan Kim, vice-chairman and CEO of Kia Motors.

“We have been stressing the value of our products over the last few years and our efforts have not gone unnoticed by the public or the industry, neither quantitatively or qualitatively.

“Kia will continue to focus on producing a new generation of quality vehicles with distinctive design to keep the momentum of our brand growing. As a top global automaker, we are set to move in new directions with continuous improvements in quality, design, eco-friendliness and brand innovation for years to come.”

Hyundai-Kia's rapid global sales increase co-incides with the reign of Hyundai-Kia chairman Mong-Koo Chung, who took over as CEO in 1999.

Since then Hyundai-Kia's globalisation push has seen the Korean maker open new manufacturing plants in China, India, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Brazil and the US, where Kia Motors America last week also announced the official opening of its new US headquarters and the Kia Design Centre America (KDCA).

Situated on a new 22-acre site in Irvine, California, the $US130 million investment was opened in a ceremony hosted by group president and CEO of Kia Motors America (KMA) and Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) Byung Mo Ahn.

“The investment in our new corporate campus reaffirms our commitment to the United States market and California. Our new US Corporate Headquarters and Design Centre enables us to develop products specifically for Kia that are designed and tuned for North American consumers,” he said.

The fully operational Irvine campus currently employs approximately 400 permanent full-time employees and has the potential to house almost 600 employees at full capacity.

The custom-built corporate facility houses the KMA US sales, marketing, public relations, consumer affairs, technical service, research and development, product planning and administration departments, as well as a 100,700 square-foot design centre that will be occupied by the design team behind the Kia Borrego/Mohave and next year's Kia Koup.