The design centre will be fully independent from its sister company Hyundai Motor, different from every other Kia design centre, as the rest are jointly operated.
Kia said that this new centre confirmed its strong commitment to the Europe, which has become Kia’s largest export market in 2005.
Yong-Hwan Kim, senior executive vice president and COO of Kia Motors Corporation, says: "As part of our global expansion plan, building a separate design centre in Europe is an important and timely step in order to further differentiate Kia’s product range from Hyundai and our competitors."
In addition to the design centre, the new building, alongside Frankfurt’s main showground where the bi-annual motor show is held, will be used by Kia Motors Europe to house its pan-European sales, marketing and aftersales operations, plus a sales academy, a technical service centre and the company’s pan-European IT hub.
The construction of an integrated building for Kia Motors Europe’s new headquarters and design centre is expected to be finished by February 2007 and ready to begin operations in March 2007.
It will accommodate a total of 350 Kia personnel and other staff from affiliated groups in Europe.
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