Kia Motors has once again reinforced its reputation for the highest design standards, picking up two prizes at the 2016 ‘Red Dot Awards’ for Product Design, one of the most prestigious international product design competitions.
The new Kia Sportage compact SUV and Optima sedan – the carmaker’s two latest models – both received coveted ‘Red Dots’. The independent judging panel even honoured the Kia Optima with a ‘Best of the Best’ award, the competition’s highest distinction, for which only the most ground-breaking designs in a category are eligible. The new generations of the Optima and the European Kia bestseller, the Sportage, were launched across Kia’s global markets earlier this year. These new prizes have seen both models defending their Red Dot Awards – both the previous generations of the Kia Sportage and Kia Optima also received Red Dot awards in 2011, while the Optima retains its ‘Best of the Best’ prize. Since 2009, when the first-generation Kia Soul won the carmaker’s first award in the competition, Kia’s design teams have gone on to achieve a total of 15 Red Dot Awards. Now, in 2016, every model in the current Kia product range has a Red Dot.
Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Designer of Kia Motors Corporation and Hyundai Motor Group, commented: «Our international design team has every cause to be exceptionally proud of these most recent awards. The first Red Dot Awards for the Kia Sportage and the Kia Optima were already great successes. It is a very special achievement to further develop a first-rate, prize-winning model so that the new design also convinces the expert jury of this globally respected and prestigious design competition».
