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Kia design chief Peter Schreyer named Hyundai-Kia President

Automotive News reports Peter Schreyer has been appointed the first non-Korean president of Hyundai-Kia Motor Group. Schreyer is expected to retain his role as the chief designer for Kia, while also taking on new, high-level executive duties. He is now one of three presidents at the automaker.
The designer made a name for himself at Volkswagen, where he penned the 1998 New Beetle and lent his eye to the Audi TT. In 2006, Schreyer moved to Kia, where he quickly revised the brand's styling from bland, forgettable lines to bold, "tiger nose" creations. Analysts attribute much of the brand's recent sales success to Schreyer's influence.
Kia is expected to move 2.75 million units worldwide next year, while sister company Hyundai will likely beat its 2012 sales forecast of 4.29 million units, according to CFO Lee Won Hee.

Kia Trail'ster Concept brings traction for the Soul in Chicago

Kia teased its hybrid all-wheel drive Trail'ster concept prior to the 2015 Chicago Auto Show debut, but the company kept some of this off-road Soul's biggest features a secret. Designed both to go off the beaten path and drive efficiently in the city, the company's designers in California added 2.5-inches of extra ground clearance and aluminum skid plates to give the hatchback a more rugged appearance. Drivers can also let the weather into the cabin thanks to a retractable canvas roof. However, the Trail'ster's most intriguing feature is its drivetrain. With a platform still based on the production Soul, up front there's a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with stop/start churning out 185 horsepower and 185 pound-feet of torque through a six-speed automatic gearbox. The gas engine exclusively runs the front axle; at the rear there's an electric motor with 35 hp and 100 lb-ft with a 1.2-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery under the cargo floor providing assistance. The whole system produces a total output of 220 hp and 285 lb-ft of twist, and the Kia claims, the concept could even run two or three miles purely on electric power. There's no physical connection between the internal combustion engine at the front and electric in the rear. Under low-throttle situations, the electric motor runs exclusively, but under most driving conditions, the all-wheel drive system provides extra traction and a bit more acceleration. Kia claims that if it put this layout into production it would offer 25-30 percent better city fuel economy and a 5-10 percent improvement on the highway compared to the current 2.0-liter powertrain in the Soul. That works about to about 30 miles per gallon city and 34 mpg highway, based on the maximum figures. The automaker isn't saying anything official yet, but it's at least hinting that a system like this could end up in the Soul one day. "The Trail'ster concept is a near-future look at how the production Kia Soul would logically evolve into an AWD-capable version that's built to escape the city streets and roam into the mountain wilderness," Tom Kearns, chief designer at the Kia Design Center of America, said in the model's announcement.

2017 Kia Cadenza First Drive

"Garbanzo? Costanza? Credenza?" I can't tell if the guy at the bakery is trying to be funny or if he's genuinely forgetting the name of the car – I've told him twice; it's the 2017 Kia Cadenza. But you know, maybe the miscommunication is just fine. Like the Cadenza itself. It's fine. You shouldn't read that negatively. Every now and then in this job, you drive a car and simply come away thinking, "it was fine." And if you're building a car in this particular segment, that's practically the response you hope to elicit. A comfortable jack-of-all-trades at a price that isn't going to bankrupt the owner. Consider the Cadenza's competition: Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima, Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse. These aren't groundbreaking luxury vehicles, masters of utility or fuel economy, or Nurburgring-smashing sports sedans; they're... fine. You almost feel bad saying it – from a very reasonable angle it's a great segment, populated with cars offering a lot of the same equipment and a little more bang for the buck than a full-on luxury sedan, and tending to be roomier, too. And yet it's that dilution of dedicated purpose that keeps these models stagnant in showrooms compared to the more luxurious – and certainly to the more economical. It's hard to raise an eyebrow here. So it goes with the Cadenza. Despite looking a heck of a lot like the previous car, the new Cadenza has been reworked significantly – the use of high-strength steel has doubled, to over 50 percent; the use of hot-stamped steel has tripled; the doors are 16 percent more dent-resistant; the chassis has 35 percent greater torsional rigidity; there's a new subframe (similar to that of the Optima); the front windows are now laminated and there's 13 percent more sound insulation in the A-pillars; there's a full underbody cover and wheel air curtains; it has a new eight-speed transmission – developed in-house; there are 40 fewer pounds of unsprung weight thanks to aluminum parts; the brakes are bigger; and there's a bevy of upscale tech features – but we lost you halfway through that paragraph. The styling is a little sharper than the outgoing model's – it's not going to blow your pants off, but it's hardly a bad-looking car. The updated design features Kia's now-trademark quad-LED setup within the lower front grilles, and the main grille is a concave affair – base models get a "Diamond Butterfly" insert you know from other Kia models, and higher-end Cadenzas get "Intaglio" vertical slats.