Top honors for Kia Motors at red dot design awards

(SEOUL) March 15, 2011 – Kia Motors has been awarded top honors in two categories at this year’s red dot product design competition in Germany.

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.”

Senior Executive Vice President & COO of Kia Motors Corporation, 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 groundbreaking 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.