On February 7th, Kia Co., Ltd., Yancheng People's Government and Jiangsu Yueda Group jointly held a signing ceremony for expanding investment cooperation. Song Husheng, President of Kia Co., Ltd., Zhou Bin, Acting Mayor of Yancheng City Government, Zhang Naiwen, Chairman of Jiangsu Yueda Group, and Liu Changsheng, General Manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, attended the ceremony and witnessed the signing of the agreement.
At the signing ceremony, Kia said it intends to form a new joint venture with Yueda Group, and plans to announce its official name in April this year. The two companies will invest US$900 million in the new company to expand investment, introduce new models, develop new energy vehicles, and set up export bases to rapidly increase Kia brand vehicle sales and capacity utilization in China.
The Yancheng government said it will fully support Kia's expansion of sales in the Chinese market and provide support for the export trade of Kia's Yancheng plant to help Kia accelerate its development in China. Since entering the Chinese market in 2002, Kia Motors has sold nearly 6 million complete vehicles, and local production has strongly driven the development of the local auto parts industry.
According to the previously exposed plan, Kia will currently focus on actively introducing global strategic models and new energy models in the Chinese market. Among them, from 2023 to 2027, starting with the new pure electric model EV6, Kia will launch a new electric model in the Chinese market every year, and gradually build a new EV matrix of 6 pure electric models, and the first imported model will be the high-profile EV6.
In addition to the introduction of model products, Kia said it will also actively carry out innovative marketing activities to show Chinese consumers the "New Kia" and sustainable vision of the future business. It is reported that the marketing campaign will form a region centered on the dealer, increasing the opportunity for consumers to understand the brand and become familiar with the brand. At the same time, it continues to provide "door-to-door test drive" and "door-to-door service" throughout the year, so that consumers can test drive new cars and basic after-sales service at home. At the same time, all of Kia's 4S stores and city showrooms will use the new SI (Terminal Image System) to allow more consumers to feel Kia's renewed brand image.
In addition, the new joint venture will build a new organizational structure, establish an innovative organizational culture, actively introduce local talents and professionals, and accelerate the localization work. According to Kia insiders, Kia will accelerate the landing of the "Global Kia" image in the Chinese market, form a more efficient decision-making process by optimizing the organizational structure, actively promote the development of various businesses, and start again in the Chinese market. In the future, Kia will continue to deepen its efforts in the Chinese market and explore the most suitable management system for the Chinese market.
In addition, the new joint venture will also achieve win-win cooperation with Chinese dealer partners by formulating reasonable operating indicators, continuously optimizing business policies, and rewarding excellent dealers.
Judging from the initiatives of Kia to expand cooperation with Jiangsu Yueda Group, the Korean auto brand is trying to achieve the recovery of the brand in the Chinese market by increasing investment, strengthening cooperation with Chinese partners, and actively introducing products and business ideas.