KIA Chief Design Officer Honored by Royal College of Art

Peter Schreyer Presented with Prestigious Design Award

IRVINE, Calif., June 29, 2007 -- Kia Motors Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, today was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Royal College of Art (RCA) in recognition of his contribution to automotive design.

Schreyer, who most recently debuted the Kia ex-cee'd cabrio concept car at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year and has been charged with establishing Kia's future design direction, is only the third automotive designer to be honored by the RCA since their establishment in 1967, joining fellow automotive designers Sergio Pininfarina and Giorgetto Giugiaro. Also honored during the festivities were artist Tracey Emin and artist and musician Brian Eno.

"I am very proud and delighted to be honored by the Royal College," stated Schreyer. "It has a world renowned tradition for encouraging the finest work and among its honorary doctors are some of the greatest names in the art and design world. To be included amongst them is possibly the greatest accolade I could wish for.

"This only serves to encourage me to produce the very best work of my career for Kia," he continued. "They have given me the opportunity to shape its whole brand design and character and seldom does a designer have such a clean sheet to work with. We have started this journey with ex_cee'd to show just where we might go, and I think we will surprise the entire automotive world with what we are planning for Kia's future."

Schreyer, 53, studied Industrial Design at the Fachhochschule in Munich. Before joining Audi in 1980 he studied at the Royal College of Art in 1979-1980 under an Audi scholarship. He continued to work at Audi and Volkswagen, producing designs for vehicles such as the Audi TT and the new VW Beetle. He left VW group to join Kia as Chief Design Officer in 2006.