Hyundai in the Czech Republic

News that Hyundai has just held the ground-breaking ceremony for its new Czech plant at Nosovice - handy timing given that many of Hyundai/Kia's top people will already have been in eastern Europe for the opening of the Kia plant at Zilina earlier in the week.

There are other links between the two sites too. The new i30 model which Hyundai will build at the plant bears more than a passing resemblance to Kia's cee'd, and Zilina will provide engines to Nosovice as well.

It will be interesting to see how these two rather similar Korean brands develop now that they are under the same corporate roof. Hyundai is positioned as a more sober, up-market proposition than Kia, which is supposed to be rather younger and sportier, but I suspect that this distinction has escaped most potential buyers so far. My guess would be that to most people, Kia and Hyundai badges still both say more or less the same thing - good, solid, if slightly anonymous, value-for-money motoring from Korea.

That's probably going to change, though, as the more of the two brands' increasingly impressive new models come on stream, and as Kia raises its profile through its sponsorship of major sporting events.

Kia cee'd - the car from Carpathia

A fascinating day at Zilina finding out how those clever people at Kia, with the help of a few thousand eager Slovakians, turn this:



into this:



in what will be Europe's most productive car factory once it is operating at full speed. The full story should be coming to a copy of the Independent near you shortly but here are some of the headlines. When it's running at full tilt, Zilina is expected to pump out 100 cars per employee per year, beating the levels achieved by what I believe are Europe's current most productive plants, Nissan at Washington in the UK and Opel/GM at Eisenach in the former East Germany.

Zilina's main product, the cee'd, is Kia's first car designed and built in Europe. The company is confident enough in this new model to provide it with an unmatched seven year guarantee. After seeing the outstanding conditions for car-making at Zilina, it's easy enough to see where that confidence comes from - and the car itself is very convincing too. For the time being, the Golf has an edge in terms of its badge while the Focus probably remains the driver's choice in this category. And it's still hard to get past the combination of quality and value for money represented by the Skoda Octavia. But I think the Astra, 307, C4 and the like are all looking very vulnerable indeed to the Korean/Slovakian advance.

En route to Zilina

A quick post from one of my favourite European cities, Bratislava. The beautiful Slovakian capital is a worthwhile destination in its own right but tonight it is just a staging post on a journey to Zilina in the north of the country, where Kia will tomorrow carry out the official opening ceremony for its new European production facility.

The Zilina factory is already turning out Kia's impressive new Golf-sized car, the cee'd. I think the cee'd and Zilina are one of the most important industry stories at the moment in Europe, so I'm expecting an interesting visit tomorrow.