September 1993
This month marks 30 years since the first Kia put wheels on land in the Netherlands. The white Sephia rolls off the ship here in the Europoort and that was the first Kia in the Dutch price lists. The small sedan was in showrooms from September 1993.
Few could have imagined that that unpretentious, typical Asian sedan was the harbinger of today’s success. The attached photo shows the first Kia to put wheels on Dutch soil. The snapshot of the white Sephia, which is carefully wheeled out of the hold of the boat, was dug up from the archives of the Dutch importer. Behind the wheel is Bas Plesman, then director of Kia Motors Nederland BV. That import company was almost as fresh as the car in question in 1993 and was also the result of good commercial spirit. Parent company ARM, which also managed the import companies of Lada and Saab, had just lost its importership of Lancia (Lanim BV); the Italians wanted to place this brand with the importer of Fiat and Alfa Romeo. As an alternative, Plesman found the Korean Kia, which had already existed for half a century and which, after a period of mainly license construction, was eager to export its own models.
Kia Sephia had Mazda 323 engine
The Sephia was allowed to kick off. Underneath the skin, the compact sedan borrowed its powerful 1.6 engine from the Mazda 323 and combined it with luxurious equipment, a neatly finished interior and exterior and handling that could handle it very well. The price level was attractive, which contributed to smooth acceptance by the public. That in turn had already become familiar with Hyundai, which came from the same distant Korea.
The Sephia was soon joined by the handy Sportage all-terrain vehicle and the license-built Pride (Mazda 121). After that the gate was lifted and a huge flow of models started, sometimes with strange names: Clarus, Shuma, Besta, Carens, Joice, Cerato, Mentor, Magentis, Pregio, Carnival, Sorento, Soul and Venga. We have not even mentioned the many current model series, while a number of them, such as the various generations of Picanto, Rio and Ceed, have largely contributed to the growth of the brand in the Netherlands. Plesman and his colleagues had seen it very well at the time with that crazy, new Kia, which has quickly become a major player.
We previously described in this article how Kia has fared since then.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl