The Korean company won four prestigious ‘red dot’ design accolades for the cee’d five-door, cee’d Sportswagon and Carens compact MPV models and top honor for the pro_cee’d. Kia Motors New Zealand is scheduled to launch the Carens later this year and is also studying the performance versions of the pro_cee’d and cee’d for limited release here.
The four 2013 awards brings the total number of Kia’s red dot awards to ten since 2009 with the Optima sedan last year been awarded the coveted ‘Best of the Best’ prize.
“We are very proud of the ‘red dots’ that have been awarded to all of the cee’d family, along with the new Carens. And we are especially enthusiastic about the ‘Best of the Best’ award for the Kia pro_cee’d because, after the Kia Optima, yet another of our vehicles has received the highest honours from the jury,” says Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Design Officer of Kia Motors Corporation.
“The fact that our most important compact models have won four prizes is a great acknowledgement of the work of our international design teams. Our cars have now been winning for five years in a row, which once again confirms that we are on the right path with our consistent design strategy.”
The Design Centre of North Rhine-Westphalia founded the ‘red dot’ awards programme in 1955 and it is now one of the most prestigious design contests in the world. The internationally acclaimed seal of quality features ‘product design’, ‘communication design’ and ‘design concepts and prototypes’ categories.
This year, 1,865 manufacturers from 54 countries submitted 4,662 products. A 37-strong jury judged the products according to nine criteria, including degree of innovation, clarity of function, formal quality and sustainability.
