Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, on Thursday launched the K8 sedan, the first model under its new brand logo, in the domestic market.
The K8 comes with a 2.5-liter gasoline, 3.5-liter gasoline or 3.5-liter liquefied petroleum injection engine. The model with a 1.6-liter gasoline turbo hybrid engine will be released next month, the company said in a statement.
Kia has received 24,000 preorders for the new sedan in the past 12 working days, already achieving 30 percent of its sales target of 80,000 units this year, it said.
"The company expects an impact of chip shortage on the K8 production, but it will make efforts to deliver ordered vehicles without much delay," a company official said.
Kia plans to launch the new model in overseas markets in the second half of this year, he said.
The K8 is equipped with advanced safety features, such as highway drive assist, front collision avoidance, navigation-based smart cruise control, blind-spot collision avoidance and the rear cross-traffic collision avoidance systems.
The K8 is priced at 33 million won-45 million won ($29,000-$40,000) depending on options. In January, the company changed its corporate name from Kia Motors Corp. to Kia Corp., signaling the brand breaking away from its traditional manufacturing-driven business model. It also changed its brand slogan to "Movement that inspires" from "The Power to Surprise."
A company slogan is a short phrase that follows its brand name in advertisements and marketing materials. It can be a powerful marketing tool as is the case with Nike's "Just Do It" and Apple's "Think Different. (Yonhap)
