Kia Motors, headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second largest automaker, second only to Hyundai. In 2015, Kia sold more than 3.3 million vehicles. As of December 2015, Kia Motor Co., Ltd. is a minority equity of Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd., which owns 33.88% of the shares, with a value of slightly more than $6 billion. Kia is a minority shareholder in more than 20 subsidiaries of Hyundai, ranging in size from 4.9% to 45.37%, totaling more than $8.3 billion.

Founded in 1944, Kia Motor Corporation (KMC) is the oldest automobile manufacturer in South Korea and now a subsidiary of Hyundai Kia motor group. In 13 manufacturing and assembly plants in eight countries, more than 1.5 million cars are produced each year. Then the sales and service are carried out through a network of distributors and distributors covering 172 countries. Kia today has 40000 full-time employees around the world with an annual revenue of more than $14.6 billion. Kia's brand slogan is "power of surprise". From August 2009 to December 2012, the company was led by young Keun (hank) Lee. Since 2006, Kia has seen design as its "future core growth engine" - leading to the hiring of Peter Schreyer in 2006 and Tom in 2005. Kearns is the chief design officer. Schreyer has previously worked at Audi (design Audi TT) and Volkswagen, and has won a design award from the Federal Republic of Germany. Kearns previously served as chief design officer of Cadillac and was responsible for influencing the direction of hard angles and sharp lines in Cadillac design.

Since then, Schreyer has been at the heart of Kia's product line redesign, responsible for the design activities of Kia's design centers in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Nanyang, South Korea.

Kia introduced a new corporate grille through the Kee concept car on display at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, creating a recognizable "face" for the brand. Schreyer, known as "tiger nose," said he wanted "a strong visual signal, a seal, an identifier. The front of the car needs this recognition, this expression. The car needs a face. I think Kia's new face is very strong and distinctive. Visibility is very important. That face should immediately make you even recognize Kia from a distance. " Schreyer explained that the Kia tiger nose looked like this: "I was just working in a car, just thinking about possibilities, and suddenly I found it." Commenting on the new iconic grille in 2009: "from now on, we will use it on all cars.". Since then, Kia has adopted a tiger nose in all its vehicles, from the compact Kia Soul, to the avant-garde kia new design Kia optima, to the large SUV Kia Sorento.

Since 2013, Kia has won the international automobile of the year award every year.