DYK, China’s Dongfeng Yueda Kia joint venture, has revealed the Horki Concept-1 at the media preview day of the Shanghai motor show. The first car for this new brand will be built in one of DYK’s three Yancheng plants from 2015.
Kia Motors, which released details and images of the Concept-1 to just-auto.com in advance of the 10:00 Shanghai time embargo, says the vehicle was designed in South Korea at its Namyang design centre.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The brand name is the phonetic pronunciation of two Chinese characters, according to Kia. ‘Hor’ means China, while ‘Ki’ translates as vehicle. Horki has been created in response to a directive from the Chinese government for foreign JVs to establish dedicated local brands.
Many commentators have begun to wonder if additional brands are really needed for the Chinese market, or whether instead it is simply VMs wanting to be seen to comply with the dictats of the Communist Party.
DYK is not the only JV announcing an extra division at Auto Shanghai: BMW and Brilliance are revealing plans to create Zinoro, a bespoke outlet for their own new brand, while Toyota will unveil a prototype of the first Ranz model.
As well as these premieres, multiple existing examples of JVs’ shared brands already exist. With the exception of Dongfeng Nissan’s Venucia brand (70,000 sales since its launch in April 2012), none has become anything more than a minor player in the Chinese market. Shanghai GM Wuling (SGMW) has Baojun, Honda’s JV with GAC has Everus (also known as Li Nian), Dongfeng Honda has Ciimo, Hyundai and BAIC will soon launch Shouwang, to be followed by BYD and Daimler’s Denza. FAW Volkswagen is also planning an extra division, which is said to be called ‘Kaili’.
Author: Glenn Brooks
