By Michael Choo
Deputy General Manager
Overseas Communication Team

Kia’s presence at this year’s Australian Open, its ninth consecutive year as the major sponsor of the first grand slam of the professional tennis calendar, has put the spotlight on consumers through the inaugural Kia Lucky Drive to Australia hospitality program.

A total of 52 fortunate customers from 16 countries were selected through local test drive/showroom visit promotions to enjoy a full-expenses paid trip to Melbourne for a once in a lifetime chance to view some of the most exciting athletes in the world as they vie for a place in the Australian Open finals. In addition to courtside seats at the thrilling Serena Williams versus Li Na women’s semi-final match which ended in a nail biting double tiebreaker (7-6, 7-6) win for the American Williams, Lucky Drive winners also had a chance to tour the beautiful city of Melbourne and take part in an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the legendary Melbourne Park tennis venue hosted by Tennis Australia – the governing body of the Australian Open. The program will culminate tonight with courtside viewing of the second men’s semi-final match between the dynamic fist-pumping Wilfried Tsonga of France against world no. 1 and 15-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer of Switzerland.

By opening the doors to the fantastic experience of the Australian Open to customers around the world, Kia hopes to further win the hearts of the true champions behind the success of Kia Motors in recent years – the everyday consumers who have given consideration to the Kia brand by visiting our showrooms and taking a test spin in one of our new generation of quality and stylish vehicles.

With the Australian Open 2010 now reaching yet another climactic finish, we will soon turn our attention to Kia’s sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM. And with various promotional activities now getting underway, we look forward to spreading the excitement of sports to even more lucky customers this summer at the world’s most captivating sporting competition. For more information on Kia’s promotional programs for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, please check out our microsite at http://fifaworldcup.kiamotors.com.

Good luck and hope to see you in South Africa!

By Pamela A. Munoz
Overseas Communication Team

A BUZZ blogger (Ricardo) recently sent us a message about an email he received asking him to contact an express delivery company in the UK to claim a prize. This was exciting news but he also knew it sounded too good to be true!

His message served as a reminder to let our consumers know that these types of random email messages, from unknown senders, are usually phishing for information from unsuspecting consumers. These types of scams not only abuse the trust people place on companies, but have also been known to scam people out of money or become victims of identity theft, or both.

Messages may promise a Kia Soul to winners, along with a cash prize, but we suspect that other Kia models are being used, or will be, to solicit responses. This is an unfortunately misuse of our corporate name that many people have come to trust. Although Kia does often hold contests in different parts of the world, random emails of this type would not be generated to solicit personal information.

Last year, Kia Motors in the UK and Kia Motors New Zealand both issued warnings to consumers in their areas about fraudulent text messages and emails that were being distributed using the Kia Motors name.

In New Zealand mobile phone text messages were informing recipients of a lottery win and asked for banking details – this was indeed a hoax. The text message used the Kia Motors “Power To Surprise” logo and was entitled ‘Fill In and Return Kia Motor Lottery Verification Form For Approval.’ The sender was signed by a ‘Dr Anderson,’ purporting to be the Cash Officer for Kia Motors, but the giveaway did not use an official Kia Motors email address.

In the UK, scammers were tricky enough to include Kia’s genuine phone numbers and email addresses in the spam email to make it look like the real deal, but people were asked to call a separate number instead.

Kia is working as best we can with proper authorities to bring an end to these types of illegal representations of the Kia brand name. Unfortunately for us, the people who carry out such scams pop up in every region of the world; as one scam is stopped, several more appear with even smarter ways of trying to trick the public. If you have received any emails or text messages phishing for such information, we recommend you either ignore it, delete it or, if in doubt, contact your local Kia distributor.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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By B.Y. Yang
Manager
Overseas Promotion Team

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world’s largest annual exhibition where the latest high-tech gadgets and goods are often unveiled for the very first time. Following our first appearance at CES in 2009, Kia Motors is unveiling its ‘UVO powered by Microsoft®’ in-car infotainment system along with other cutting edge automotive technologies at this year’s show, which kicked off on January 7th in Las Vegas. Below are some technical details of the new innovations being shown at Kia’s CES booth.

The world’s most advanced in-car multimedia system

Kia Motors’ all-new “UVO” in-car infotainment system, which was created in collaboration with Microsoft, delivers voice recognition controls, enhanced hands-free Bluetooth® connectivity and true, high- performance interactivity with mobile multimedia.

The UVO unit, which features a jukebox, a five-disc CD player and an external amplifier, is fitted with a 4.3-inch display screen that can broadcast images from a vehicle’s rear backup camera (on all UVO- equipped Kia vehicles in the U.S.), as well as the regular program or mode related information.

UVO also features 1GB of embedded memory with CD-ripping and MP3-copying capabilities. Once saved to the hard drive, music files are searchable by track, album name, artist and genre through the intuitive and user-friendly menu system.

Also, Kia buyers will be able to add HD Radio to their UVO unit to further enhance their listening pleasure.

Revolutionary touch-panel transforms user feedback

Kia Motors’ all-new “UVO” in-car infotainment system will introduce a revolutionary touch-sensitive control panel that promises to deliver unique interaction with the user. Located across the bottom of the unit between the two main rotary controls, the touch panel employs Field Effect ASIC (with inner and outer electrodes), using a digital input signal that is triggered by finger contact to operate the audio system.

The panel can be manufactured in a variety of materials and with a ‘contour design’, allowing car designers much greater freedom to create fresh and dynamic design solutions for enhanced cabin architecture and ambience.

Click on the below video to see a demonstration of how the UVO system works.

Haptic Steering Wheel Switch
Reactive “Haptic” steering wheel switch enhances road safety

Kia Motors is displaying a touch-sensitive and reactive “Haptic” control module for vehicle steering wheels at CES. Linked to a new LCD display within the instrument cluster, the technology helps users to fully exploit the potential of modern in-car entertainment systems – such as those featured in Kia Motors’ new UVO system – without the need for multiple buttons to be fitted to the car’s steering wheel.

Positioned for easy operation by the driver’s thumb, the active Haptic switch features seven modes of reactive vibration to help the driver navigate the system’s menus using touch alone. The switch can be employed to remotely operate the car’s systems, such as the HVAC, as well as the audio and communications systems.

Although visual information is presented via LCD graphics, Kia Motors expects users to quickly learn to monitor the car’s systems through touch alone – enabling them to keep their eyes on the road.

Full Telematics service facilitates better connectivity
Kia Motors Corporation is showcasing an all-new full Telematics service at CES, which operates through the car’s built-in audio system via hands-free Bluetooth®. Telematics technology is expected to be increasingly important to new car buyers in the future, allowing a rapid transfer of key information to vehicle occupants to safely enhance their enjoyment of their cars.

The high-speed Telematics service features a 40 bytes-per-second data transfer speed and is compatible with GSM, CDMA and 3G mobile phones. The service is primarily designed to deliver driving information about traffic flow and congestion, current and imminent weather conditions, vehicle diagnostics and emergency service alerts.

The system will also enable the driver and passengers to enjoy multimedia navigation.

First opportunity to watch live digital TV in an automobile
Mobile digital television can now be streamed live into cars through a new system from Kia Motors. While North American satellite radio and limited paid-for video broadcasts have been available in-car since 2008, Kia Motors’ new technology enables live digital television channels to be watched on in-car entertainment systems for the first time.

UVO will ensure occupants are fully entertained and also kept abreast of breaking news, and will help to keep rear-seat passengers occupied, reducing driver distraction.

Uninterrupted reception, at speeds up to 180 mph, produces dual band television transmission with a clear, high-quality picture to entertain and inform rear-seat occupants.

All that Kia vehicle users will require to view the in-car live television screening is a rear-seat entertainment system, featuring a display panel of seven inches or more.

‘Widget’ framework creates an in-car wireless communications hub

Through the car’s idle mobile phone screen, Kia users will have access to the new application ‘widgets’ system and downloadable services, enabling at-a-glance automotive wireless communications. The main benefit of the widget system is that it affords users easier access to key services by removing some of the usual steps required.

These widget applications can include RSS news and financial feeds, traffic and weather reports and updates from networking SNS applications such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The intelligent widget system can also check the car for faults, monitor fuel economy, as well as provide navigation services that can direct you to the nearest gasoline station.

Touch screen technology allows the user to navigate through the widget framework easily, until the system detects the car is running and it switches into driver mode, at which point it is controlled through buttons on the vehicle’s steering wheel.

Two world’s first technologies deliver better communications for Kia drivers
Connecting people to external information sources when travelling by car is becoming increasingly important, and with antennas necessary to support the various technologies available, Kia Motors has teamed up with Ace-Antenna to develop two all-new, cost-effective, multi-use antennas.

• Unity External Shark Fin Antenna
The world’s first nine-band, shark-fin External Integration Active Antenna system reads both CDMA and GPS (voice and data communications) signals, and incorporates the vehicle’s conventional radio aerial.

• Unity Internal Room Mirror Antenna
Another world first, born of the same collaborative program, is the six-band rear-view mirror-mounted Internal Integration Active Antenna system for other Telematics services. This new antenna, for telematics and ITS reception, is located within the mirror housing for optimum product performance and ease of installation.

The new rear view mirror system can be applied immediately to any car in the world. An additional benefit of both systems is that, as the antennas are able to receive a number of different signals, the user is able to use their phone across international borders.

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By Kia BUZZ team

The Kia BUZZ team will be taking a short break during the holiday season and wanted to take this time to thank our on-line community for their participation with our corporate blog. We strive to provide interesting content from the many aspects of our day-to-day business from our staff around the world and rely heavily on your feedback to offer the best we can.

May you all enjoy the holidays this season and we will be back in 2010 with a whole new year’s worth of fun. For now, we leave you with holiday messages we hope you enjoy!

Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights. Symbolized by menorahs , dreidels and fun; it is a festival of warmth and love, peace and togetherness. May we wish you and your loved ones happy Hanukkah. May you all be blessed with all your heart’s desire.
- Kia Motors, Israel

By Lucia Dopiriakova
Assistant Manager
Global Planning Team

Hello everyone! This is the first time I write for the blog after being an avid reader for the past few years. Today, I wanted to share a bit of my experience working at Kia Motors’ headquarters in Seoul. My journey with this Korean automaker began in 2007 but in the lives of many Slovak people it played a vivid role since 2004.

It was the year Kia Motors broke ground to start up the Kia Motors Slovakia plant and became one of the main industrial players on the current economic scene of my native country. Since its arrival, Kia’s influence in Slovakia has been tremendous as it greatly contributed to increased employment, incomes and opportunities for thousands of the country’s 5.4 million citizens. By investing in Slovakia and seeing the true potential the country had to offer, Kia Motors once again showed its strong skills in terms of visionary and strategic thinking.

Last month, Slovakia celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. As far as revolutions go, it was a smooth transition from the old regime to the new one, hence the ‘Velvet’ name. The Velvet Revolution was followed by Velvet Divorce with Czech Republic in 1993 and since then my small country started a successful, independent journey.

A few years after the Revolution, in 2000, we joined the OECD and then successfully fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria and joined the European Union in the same year Kia Motors broke ground. All these great achievements were not the end.
At the beginning of 2009 Slovakia joined the eurozone and is thus currently using Euro as its official currency together with 15 other members of the EU. Among the post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe Slovakia is only the second country after Slovenia that fulfilled the strict economic criteria, called Maastricht criteria, and was allowed to join the eurozone.

And in all this successful economic development, Kia Motors was a very important part of the chain that keeps pulling the country forward in big steps. That is why, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution we decided together with the Slovak Embassy to present a bit of Slovakia and Kia’s intertwined history through an exhibit in the lobby of our headquarters.

The exhibit named “Following the way of the Velvet Revolution: Slovakia after 1989,” was on display for our thousands of employees and received positive reviews. I personally believe this was a great opportunity to showcase how this partnership through globalization has not only benefited Slovakia and Korea as countries, but also the society as a whole and the European region through vehicles built specifically for Europeans, in Europe.

Below, you will see a picture from the exhibit. I hope you enjoy! For more information about Slovakia or the Velvet Revolution, please visit http://charter97.org/en/news/2009/11/17/23740/ or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution.