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Kia continues Ecology Center support, donates Soul EV

Kia is reaffirming its green side by continuing its support of The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, CA. In addition to events at the company's American headquarters in Irvine, CA, the Korean automaker is donating a Soul EV for the non-profit organization to use. The Center's goal is to educate the people of Southern California in food, water supply and energy conservation. This is the third year of Kia's partnership with the group. The Soul EV should go perfectly with last year's donation of two charging stations, too. To get people motivated about the environment, the Center offers events like film screenings, classes, and camps for kids. After it hit the market late last year, the Soul EV has proven reasonably popular. Sales started exclusive to California, but Kia recently decided to broaden the offering to Texas, Georgia, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. The electric hatchback offers drivers 109 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of torque with an official 93-mile range from a 27-kWh, lithium-ion battery. KIA MOTORS AMERICA RENEWS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ECOLOGY CENTER AND PROVIDES SOUL EV TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY OUTREACH EFFORTS Automaker's "Visionary" Sponsorship of San Juan Capistrano-Based Eco-Education Center Supports Awareness and Education about Food, Water Supply and Energy Conservation Partnership with The Ecology Center supports Kia's diverse corporate sustainability practices Two electric vehicle charging stations available at The Ecology Center IRVINE, Calif., June 23, 2015 – Kia Motors America (KMA) today announced the renewal of its partnership with The Ecology Center, a San Juan Capistrano, California-based non-profit eco-education center dedicated to creating a healthy and abundant future for all of Southern California and beyond. In its third year as a "Visionary" partner, Kia is providing the use of a 2015 Soul EV to The Ecology Center, which complements the two electric vehicle charging stations installed as part of the partnership last year. Kia and The Ecology Center will organize and carry out sustainability-themed learning projects at the KMA campus in Irvine, California, and in the surrounding community, and both organizations will continue work together to plan hands-on conservation and volunteer activities at The Center.

Superman joining Kia's Justice League-themed fleet of vehicles

Kia is teaming up with the Justice League once again to create another show car that will be on display at the Chicago Auto Show. At the 2012 SEMA Show, Kia showed off various models inspired by DC Entertainment characters Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern and Cyborg, but a Superman-themed Kia Optima Hybrid will roll into the Windy City for next week's show.
In the above drawing, we only get to see a small portion of this car inspired by the Man of Steel, but it will have the requisite red-and-blue paint scheme with Superman's shield on the hood (subtle, it is not).
The previous cars include the Batman Optima, Aquaman Rio, Flash Forte Koup, Green Lantern Soul and Cyborg Forte. All six cars were created to raise awareness for the "We Can Be Heroes" campaign, which helps families in eastern Africa affected by drought and famine.

Next-gen Kia Sedona drops more camo, shows KV7 cues

It was just two weeks ago that we saw our first glimpse of the 2015 Kia Sedona testing in full camouflage, but now Kia has stripped away some of the heavy cladding to give us an even better idea what its new minivan will look like. As we pointed out before, the next Sedona doesn't use as many design cues from the 2012 Kia KV7 as we initially hoped, but it should be interesting enough to stand out from the current crop of minivans.
Even though most of the body is still covered with the black and white pattern and the side doors still have cladding, these spy shots show off plenty of details about the new Sedona. Starting up front, Kia gave its minivan a more upright shape that we've seen a lot of on current Kia designs, while the reduced camo also makes the van's new side window shape more obvious. This pinched daylight opening (DLO) along the side is the same as what we saw on the KV7, and the window line dips back down again for the liftgate glass. While we're focused on the rear of the Sedona, that liftgate spoiler looks a lot like what we're used to seeing on the back of a Porsche Cayenne.
Kia has still yet to announce when its new minivan will be unveiled, but as things seem to be pretty far along in development, we'd expect to see something on the 2015 Sedona fairly soon.