Meet the Man behind the KIA Revolution



Man On The Move - Peter Schreyer - Chief Designer - Kia 



Kia has boasted enormous sales gains during the past three financial years and the brand is getting more and more popular and accepted in the competitive motor industry, all these thanks to the newly acquired Chief in Design Peter Schreyer. Schreyer has brought into Kia a complete overhaul of the business not only in the designs but from their products line up to Kia’s boastful sales figures. Bringing Schreyer on board was the best move the South Korean automotive manufacturer could have ever made.

        Born in Bad Reichenhall Deutschland in 1953, Schreyer became the backbone of the German manufacturer AUDI after he joined them as a design graduate in 1978 and has won them medals in the process including the introduction of the iconic Audi TT in 1995. 1999 saw him move to VW Advanced Design on a brand rejuvenation mission that saw the birth of the Golf and the Jetta IV, needless to say his heart was no longer in the group. Sources at Audi say the move to leave the German group had been in Schreyer’s books for over five years.

In 2006 Peter Schreyer moved to Kia as the Designer in Chief. The move came as a shock to the industry as most have never imagined a Peter Schreyer without Audi or Audi without a Peter Schreyer. To Kia however this was a breath of fresh air as it happened at a very crucial time when the recession was about to hit the industry. He was immediately mandated with the task of turning the embattled manufacturer to profitability. His philosophy included and concentrated on rebranding Kia to a unique and family friendly and youthful look. That he managed to do.

Under his command, we saw the rise of the Kia Sportage from two struggled models to one sold out internationally demanded design. The market got revolutionized to Kia’s ideology that the Korean plant was overwhelmed and could not handle the demand. Between June 2010 and June 2011, the waiting list of the Sportage was sitting at a staggering seven months turnaround time with orders still streaming in. These proved that somehow they hit a nerve however; Kia must have thought this was a work of luck than a genius at work as we see in their fear to commit to increasing their production capacity.

We also saw the reintroduction of the Cerato and the Rio and the long anticipated disappearance of the Kia Shuma. Kia has now also introduced a Sports package to its entry level models; in fact this is where a lot of resemblance to the Audi comes in. For instance, the sports package on the Rio looks very much like the Audi S3, while the Cerato has borrowed bumper splitters from the A4 and BMW 3-series respectively in a very Peter Schreyer innovative way. While in the looks and feel of their vehicles, Kia has their finger on the pulse, the manufacturer is quick to admit that in terms of fuel consumption a lot is still to be addressed, so does most Korean designs.
When asked about what the prospects of a sport car by Kia are, Schreyer admits “it’s a good one”, although they have got nothing in the pipeline as yet; it should not be long before we see a Kia super car. Schreyer adds "if it were not because of safety regulations we would have already designed something out of the ordinary as far as design limits are concerned". Schreyer’s involvement with Kia has surely propelled the Korean manufacturer to unimaginable heights, while benefiting also those close to them like Hyundai and Daihatsu.

TMakhubedu
Editor- Autozeen