TOKYO – Kia has unveiled a brand new, extra trendy, script-like model brand to interchange its aged oval mark and assist jumpstart the South Korean carmaker’s deliberate model relaunch.

As a part of the makeover, Kia Motors Corp. has additionally adopted a brand new slogan: Motion that Evokes. The brand new emblem and catchphrase have been each unveiled Wednesday throughout a pyrotechnical display within the skies above Incheon, South Korea, that used 303 drones launching fireworks.

“The introduction of the brand new brand represents Kia’s ambitions to ascertain a management place sooner or later mobility business by revamping almost all sides of its enterprise,” Kia mentioned in a launch.

The reworked brand and contemporary tagline will herald an up to date enterprise technique that Kia CEO Ho Sung Music plans to unveil on Jan. 15. In an interview with Automotive News late final 12 months, Music mentioned Kia would dump its long-in-the-tooth oval and embark on a model “relaunch” this month.

The Jan. 15 occasion, dubbed a digital “New Kia Model Showcase,” will define the overhaul.  

Music needs Kia needs to ramp up of mass manufacturing of electrical automobiles by means of 2025 and quickly broaden into what the corporate calls purpose-built automobiles, or PBVs. These are runabouts devoted to new mobility enterprises corresponding to journey hailing, robotaxis and on-the-go e-commerce.

All informed, Kia is investing $25 billion in new applied sciences by means of 2025.

“The automotive business is experiencing a interval of fast transformation, and Kia is proactively shaping and adapting to those adjustments,” Music mentioned within the firm’s Jan. 6 assertion. “Our new brand represents our need to encourage prospects as their mobility wants evolve, and for our staff to rise to the challenges we face in a fast-changing business.”

The brand new brand’s rhythmical, unbroken line conveys “Kia’s dedication to bringing moments of inspiration,” the corporate mentioned, linking the look to the model’s new slogan.

Kia has been utilizing variants of its present brand –- with the phrase KIA encircled by an oval –- since 1994, with minor tweaks in 2004 and 2012. The brand new badge adopts a stylized, virtually runic, script by which the capital letters Okay-I-A are joined with a contemporary aptitude. Kia teased a model of it on the Think about electrical idea automotive it confirmed on the 2019 Geneva auto present.