In the past 2023, Kia has sold a total of 166,000 vehicles at home and abroad, of which about 80,000 units have been exported, in other words, the real domestic sales are less than 100,000 units. The peak moment for Kia in the Chinese market was 2016, when Kia's sales in China reached 650,000 units, and the following year began to decline year by year. In fact, the reasons for this are nothing more than the impact of the "THAAD incident", the fluctuations brought about by the Chinese auto market after entering the stock market, and the rapid development of domestic brands, coupled with the impact of the wave of electrification and intelligence on joint venture brands in recent years, which are also important reasons for affecting Kia's sales in China. In addition, it cannot be ignored that Kia itself is not a strong brand, and the previous joint venture in China involved the interests of both Dongfeng and Yueda, and some internal problems have existed for a long time.
This may be Kia's brightest time in China
When it comes to the early development of Kia Motors in China, some people may think of the Kia Maxima, which was the first car produced by Kia after the formation of a joint venture in China, but before that, another of its models entered the Chinese market earlier through the introduction of assembly, that is, today's protagonist - Kia Pride (Pratt).
Kia Motors
Founded in 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry, Kia produced Korea's first bicycle, Samchully, which was renamed Kia Industries. Based on this, Kia began to enter motorcycle manufacturing, and in 1961, it launched the Kia C-100 two-wheeled motorcycle in collaboration with Honda, which became the starting point of the Korean motorcycle industry. The following year, Kia launched the K360 three-wheeled motorcycle based on Mazda's technology, which was the first domestically produced three-wheeled motorcycle in South Korea and the beginning of a long-term technical cooperation between Kia and Mazda.
In 1952, Kia produced Korea's first bicycle, the Samchully
Honda C-100 motorcycles produced by Kia
Mazda K360三轮摩托车
In 1973, Kia produced Korea's first gasoline engine, and in the same year, the Sohari plant was built, the first plant in Korea to produce finished vehicles, and production began on the second-generation Mazda Familia (also known as the Mazda 1000 in some countries). In October 1974, a sedan version of the Brisa rolled off the assembly line, becoming the first car in Korea to use a gasoline engine and successfully exported to overseas markets. Since then, Kia has entered the passenger car market after 30 years of development, starting with the production of bicycle parts in 1944. The birth of the Brisa coincided with the outbreak of the oil crisis, and thanks to the economy of the 1L displacement engine, Kia's small car achieved very good sales.
In 1974, Kia released the Brisa sedan
Subsequently, Kia began to cooperate with European manufacturers, and successively acquired the production rights of the Fiat 132 and Peugeot 604 models, and assembled them in Korea. What seemed like a smooth path came to an end in 1981 when Kia was restricted by the South Korean government from producing light commercial vehicles, not just for Kia alone, but not just for the automotive industry. Fortunately, in the late 80s, the South Korean government relaxed restrictions on passenger car production, and Kia was able to produce sedans again, and this time Kia came up with a new product that was the protagonist of this article, the Pride Pratt.
Kia Pride, the Kia logo on the front of the car is the design shape of the year
The evolution of the Kia logo
In July 1986, Kia Motors signed a property rights cooperation agreement with Ford Motor of the United States, transferring 10% of the equity of Kia Motors to Ford Motor, in addition to 8% of the equity of Kia Motors has been owned by Mazda and 2% by C.ITOH, so that the international multinational company occupies 20% of the equity of Kia. The relationship between Mazda and Ford can also be traced back to the end of the 60s of the last century, when Mazda began to carry out technical cooperation with Ford, and the relationship between the two sides became closer and closer, until Mazda, which was in trouble, began to sell shares to Ford in 1979, and at its peak in 1996, Ford held 33.4% of Mazda's shares, and was the largest shareholder of Mazda. (By 2015, Ford had sold all of its shares in Mazda, and the two companies were no longer capitally related.) ）
Kia Motors used to have close partnerships with Mazda and Ford
Kia Pride
The origin of the Pride model begins with Mazda, which originally developed a small three-door hatchback sedan for Ford to sell in Japan, which was officially launched in 1986 and named Ford Festiva (note: this is very close to the spelling of the later Ford Fiesta, that is, the domestic Changan Ford Fiesta, both cars are small cars, but the two have nothing to do with each other...... ）。 Kia also obtained a manufacturing license for the car and named it the Kia Pride, and in addition to the domestic market, Kia also exported the Pride to the European market, and exported to the American market under the name Ford Festiva, which was also developed by Mazda to compete with the increasingly powerful Japanese car companies at the time for the low-cost entry-level small car market.
Ford Festiva five-door version
Ford Festiva three-door version
Mazda named the car the Mazda121 and sold it to the Australian and European markets, but interestingly, Mazda did not sell it in Japan, only the Festiva with the Ford logo and the left-hand drive version imported from Kia in South Korea (known as the Festiva 5 and Festiva β in Japan).
Mazda 121
A left-hand drive version of the Ford Festiva β in Japan
The first-generation Festiva was available in a variety of variants such as a three-door/five-door hatchback, a four-door sedan, and a five-door station wagon. The 1.1-liter, 1.3-liter, and 1.32-liter four-cylinder gasoline engines are available in different countries, mated to 4-, 5-, and 3-speed automatic transmissions. In addition to the European, Australian and American markets mentioned above, Iran, Egypt, the Philippines, Venezuela and Taiwan have all produced the car, with a total of more than 2 million units sold.
Ford Festiva Touring Edition
In 1993, Ford and Kia launched the second generation of Festiva, which was jointly developed, but the production of the first generation of Festiva (Pride) in South Korea did not stop, and in the late 90s, the first generation of Festiva (Pride) came to China:
The first-generation Pride production line at Kia's plant in South Korea
Domestic assembly of Pride
At the end of the last century, among the domestic automobile manufacturers, quite a number of companies did not have the "7" prefix for the production of cars, but had the qualifications to produce trucks, off-road vehicles, buses and even special vehicles. Among them, Jiangmen Xinhui Automobile Factory and Shaoguan Guangtong Automobile Factory introduced Kia Pride parts through negotiations in the 90s of the last century, and assembled and sold them in the form of CKD. There were countless automobile factories that assembled such parts in the era when the production qualifications of cars were strictly controlled, and most enterprises also produced cars by assembling off-road vehicles and hatchbacks.
The "pride" of Jiangmen Xinhui assembly
However, it is precisely because of the lack of qualifications that Jiangmen Xinhui Automobile Factory did not survive in the end, and automobile production naturally disappeared; Shaoguan Guangtong Automobile Factory assembled a batch of Pride with the prefix "5" (GTQ5010X) and there was no follow-up, but Guangtong Automobile Wall blossomed outside the wall, moved from Shaoguan to Zhuhai and developed into a well-known bus manufacturer. The third manufacturer to assemble the Pride was later Kia's real partner in China - Jiangsu Yancheng Yueda.
Pride assembled by Shaoguan Guangtong
Jiangsu Yueda Group Co., Ltd. began its business in 1979, the starting point of the company was the founder Hu Youlin led a coal mixing group of only 55 yuan, and then slowly developed into an important logistics enterprise in Yancheng, in 1991 Yueda Industrial Group was established, and took over Yancheng Automobile Factory in the same year. However, the Yancheng Automobile General Factory was a marginal enterprise with no input, no products, no equipment, no technology, no talents, and no market, and it did not have the ability to make cars in terms of capital, support, technology, and environment, and of course did not have the production qualifications for cars. Therefore, the introduction of foreign technology has become the most reliable and convenient way, and Yueda Group's choice is also Kia Pride.
Yancheng Automobile General Factory
Yueda's relationship with Kia began in 1996, and the real opportunity to promote further cooperation between the two sides occurred at the end of 1996, when the then Vice Premier Zou Jiahua visited South Korea, and Hu Youlin, who followed up, actively facilitated a visit to Kia that was not originally planned on the itinerary, which directly promoted the cooperation between the two sides. On August 18, 1997, Yancheng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. introduced the first Yueda brand YQZ6370 light bus (Pratt) produced by introducing Korean technology, marking the initial success of the cooperation between Yueda Group and South Korea's Kia, and also marking a key step towards the modernization goal of Yancheng automobile industry. At the same time, Yueda Group began to introduce a full set of stamping, welding, painting and assembly production lines from South Korea to accelerate the pace of localization.
Yueda Kia Pride
Yueda Kia Pratt
In 1998, Yueda Kia Pride began mass production and was officially named "Yueda Kia Pride". In the same year, Kia's rapid expansion and the chain reaction caused by the financial crisis led to the brink of bankruptcy of Kia Motors, and then in 2000, the South Korean government ordered Hyundai Motor to buy Kia and reorganize it into the Hyundai-Kia Group, a series of changes that did not have much impact on the joint venture with Yueda. First of all, Yueda and Kia jointly established Jiangsu Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. in 1999, of which Yueda held 70% of the shares, Kia held 30% of the shares; and then in January 2000, Yueda Group and Hyundai Kia Group expanded cooperation, and the share ratio of Jiangsu Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. was adjusted to Yueda 50% of the shares, Kia 30% of the shares, and Hyundai 20% of the shares.
Kia became part of Hyundai
Although the entry of Hyundai Motor has made the joint venture stronger, it cannot be ignored that in the domestic market, the joint venture company still has not obtained the "birth permit" for the production of sedans, and the only feasible solution is to introduce other qualified shareholders. On March 22, 2002, the State Economic and Trade Commission formally approved Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. to join Dongfeng Motor Company, and the equity ratio of the newly established Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. was: Dongfeng and Yueda each accounted for 25%, and Hyundai-Kia Group accounted for 50%, and Kia's development in China was officially set sail.
Let's take a look at the development of Pride in China, the domestic Yueda Kia Pralet uses a 1.4L displacement of 4-cylinder gasoline engine, the maximum power of 55kW, the maximum torque of 120Nm, the transmission provides a 5-speed manual transmission and a 3-speed automatic transmission two options, which is also the cheapest foreign brand automatic transmission car that can be bought in the domestic market at that time.
Automatic transmission of Yueda Kia Plet
Compared with the popular Xiali, Alto and other small cars within 100,000 yuan, the space is larger, the power is stronger, and more importantly, the driving experience brought by the 4-cylinder engine is incomparable with other models that use three-cylinder engines. In the face of more cutting-edge Buick Sail, Xiali 2000 and other models, the price of about 6-80,000 yuan is quite competitive. In the early stage of production, with high quality, hatchback/sedan, manual/automatic models, and a complete range of equipment in the same price range, Pratt helped Kia to open up its reputation in the domestic market and establish a good reputation.
In the year when Dongfeng Yueda and Kia tripartite joint venture were established, the new model Maxima rolled off the assembly line, and the overall technical level was a big step ahead of Pratt, but the price was not much higher than that of Pratt. Since 2003, Pratt has reduced the starting price of the model to less than 60,000 yuan, which is different from the new model and highlights the cost performance. Later, with the gradual popularity of Maxima, Pratt's mission as Kia's pioneer in China has been completed, and finally officially discontinued at the end of 2003.
Domestic Pratt parameters:
车长:3,935mm(三厢)3,615mm(两厢)
Width: 1,605mm
车高:1,465mm(三厢)1,394mm(两厢)
Wheelbase: 2,345 mm
Curb weight: 855kg (sedan) 830kg (hatchback)
Fuel tank volume: 37L
Front suspension: MacPherson style
Rear suspension: torsion beam type
轮胎规格：165/65R13
Red hatchback
Champagne hatchback
White hatchback
Saloon version
Through the tripartite joint venture, Dongfeng Motor has obtained 20% of the 25% shares through the car production qualification, and the remaining 5% is cash contribution, which means that Dongfeng has only exchanged a small investment for 1/4 of the equity in the joint venture with Hyundai Kia; However, through the 40-year history of joint venture brand development, too many shareholders often cannot form an effective joint force, and Dongfeng Yueda Kia is not.
Pratt can be regarded as a test field for Yueda and Kia, proving that the Chinese auto market has huge potential, and the subsequent introduction of Kia Maxima is the first model to be introduced into China by Dongfeng Yueda Kia Joint Venture, and it quickly hit a reputation after being listed. Dongfeng Yueda Kia's development in China began to get on the right track, but as written earlier in the article, various internal and external factors led to the rapid shrinkage of Hyundai Kia's sales in the Chinese market, which directly led to Dongfeng Yueda Kia's losses year after year, with accumulated debts of more than 10 billion yuan. In December 2021, Dongfeng Group completed the transfer of 25% of the equity at a price of 297 million yuan, officially withdrew from the Dongfeng Yueda Kia joint venture, ending the 20-year cooperation between the three, and Dongfeng Yueda Kia Company changed back to its original name: Yueda Kia.
As the wave of electrification swept the domestic market, car companies from peaks to troughs abounded, and there were even joint ventures such as GAC FCA, GAC Mitsubishi, and Dongfeng Renault that withdrew from the Chinese market. Still hovering in the trough Yueda Kia shouted the slogan of "in China, for China", and also accelerated the transformation to an electrified brand, launching two electric models, the domestic EV5 and the imported EV6, but Kia, which has been away from the mainstream for a long time, can rely on this and two cars to "come back to life"? Or another way of thinking, maybe Yueda Kia can rely on the Yangtze River Delta's strong new energy industry supply chain and domestic leading technology, relying on Yancheng to build Kia Motors' global production, R&D and export base? We'll see.
EV5
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