Kia Corporation

Kia Corporation is a South Korean multinational automaker headquartered in Seoul, the second largest automaker in South Korea after its affiliate Hyundai Motor Company, already live in this atlas. It was founded in 1944 as Kyungsung Precision Industry, initially making steel tubing and bicycle parts, and it built Korea's first domestically produced bicycle in 1951 and its first motorcycle in 1961 before moving into automobile manufacturing. Kia fell into financial difficulty during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and Hyundai Motor Company acquired a controlling stake in 1998, and the two companies have since operated as the affiliated Hyundai Motor Group while continuing to sell vehicles under their own separate Kia and Hyundai brands.