Currently reading: Kia plans Audi A5 rival
Kia is planning a Audi A5-style coupe concept for Frankfurt as well as new prospective models

Fast-expanding Kia plans to launch an Audi A5-style coupe concept at the Frankfurt show in mid-September, as a prelude to a varied sequence of “image” car concepts at forthcoming major shows, understood to include Detroit and Geneva 2012.

Company chiefs say the time is now right for some eye-grabbing Kia models. Sales of the current range of “everyman” saloons, hatchbacks and SUVs have doubled over the past four years to around 2.5 million units. The new concepts will be created within Kia’s design studios in Seoul, Frankfurt and California.

Prospective models are likely to include a small front-drive roadster, based on Cee’d mechanicals, a rear-drive coupe along the lines of the Hyundai’s Genesis, and a drop-top version of the Soul, the latter targeted on the US market where the parent model has been a particular success.

“We have made good progress recently,” says Kia’s vice chairman and CEO, Hank Lee. “but it is now important for us to improve our brand power. Concepts like these will help a lot with that. But we are prepared to take our time. We will test plenty of ideas before we make any decisions about production.”

Kia’s European boss, Paul Philpott, says the logical time for Kia to launch some high-image cars would be in 2013, by which time all its mainstream cars will have been renewed. “We could do with a new Kia product to do the job of the Mazda MX-5,” he says, and "2013-2014 would be the ideal time to do it. But our factories in Europe, China, America and Korea are already at full stretch. The big challenge will be finding the extra production capacity we’ll need."

See all the latest Kia reviews, news and video

Steve Cropley

Steve Cropley Autocar
Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business. 

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back. 

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.

Add a comment…