KIA Motors (Korean for "Out of Asia into the world") is the oldest Korean automobile manufacturer with its headquarters in Seoul. Now Hyundai-KIA Automotive Group is the world's fifth largest automaker. It makes more than 1.4 million vehicles a year at 14 production and Assembly sites in eight countries.
KIA, then called Kyungsung Precision Industry, was formed on may 15, 1944, shortly before North Korea went to war with South Korea. First at a small factory in Yangdeungpo, which is now located in the southern part of Seoul, the company was engaged in the production of bicycles, spare parts for them and industrial goods, and later began to produce trucks and cars.
The first Korean Bicycle was produced by KIA in 1946. At that time, the country felt an urgent need for cheap individual vehicles. Most of the bicycles that rode on the streets of Korean cities were purchased abroad. Seeing a niche unoccupied by a domestic manufacturer, the management of Kyungsung Precision Industry releases the first Bicycle-Samcholli-ho.
Although the market needed such products, the company's business was worse than expected. In addition, the war began. This forced the company's management to move production facilities to Busan, where it was relatively quiet. Despite the artisanal production methods, KIA made a real technological breakthrough at home: at that time, Korea was a very poor and backward country.
In 1952, THE company changed its name to KIA Industrial Company. The name KIA at that time was one of the models of bicycles produced by THE company.
By the end of the war in 1953, South Korea's industry was in ruins. Recovery was slow. President Park Chung-Hee concentrated all political and economic power in his hands and was obsessed with economic growth. KIA, as a vehicle manufacturer, only benefited from the economic ambitions of the country's leadership: the recovery in the economy brought the company profit.
