At Kia’s media preview event of the All-new generation K9 luxury sedan on the March 20th, Kia’s product development team explained why they developed a new flagship car still representing Kia brand despite launching a new luxury brand, or continuing with what we have seen on the Stinger for South Korea with the “E” emblem. [ads id=”9″]
According to Kia, with the All-New K9 they plan to increase its brand image through the success of a flagship car inside the brand than creating an all-new separated brand.
Kia Motors member said, “The rumors about the launch of a separate brand have not ceased, but it is quite a burden on the part of the company.””Unlike this, all-new Kia K9 aims to be the flagship that will lead Kia Motors Company”, he added.
The rumor that Kia Motors will release a separate brand has been on the rise in the automobile industry since last year. Based on the trademark registration and discussions within the company, specific brand names such as ‘Esensis‘ and ‘Esentus’ were mentioned. The new ‘E’ emblem, which was introduced last year by launching the sports sedan Stinger, was also the first to adopt a new brand. According to the rumors this new “E” emblem will be used on Stinger, K9 and Mohave, but finally K9 will not use it.
The E logo symbolizes the maximized performance of its rear-wheel driving. It also stands for the company’s new theme “Engineered by Excellence.” Aside from that, the logo means Exclusive, Exquisite and Evolutionary. The new logo symbolizes the car’s new premium line-up. However, this logo will only be available in its home South Korea. When it is shipped internationally, the car will have its normal Kia logo. The company did this because its Kia badge seemed to attract more people than just the E-logo.
Hyundai & Kia were famous to offer different logos on their cars at the local market between the years, like the Genesis before being a brand, Kia Opirus or Mohave also used different logos.
On the other hand, Kia plans to release a separated marketing plan for the launch of the new K9 during April. ‘The K9’, will be a space where experience and test the All-New K9 this year.