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The Kia K8, a new Kia model, was officially unveiled at the 2023 Geneva Motor Show in Qatar. The new car is positioned as a medium-sized sedan with a 3.5L V6 engine.

In terms of appearance, the front face of the new car uses a borderless polygon mesh filling design, supplemented by a large number of diamond-shaped structures, and the same elements are also applied to the daily lights on both sides and the details surrounded by the front, which looks very aggressive as a whole. On both sides of the net are long and narrow headlights, with concave and convex edges on the front cover, and a brand logo embedded in the center, bringing a sense of power to the new car.

The side of the body, the side of the new car looks very slender, the straight waistline and slip-back D-pillar design further enhance this visual effect, and the extra chrome strips on the side skirt with large-size wheels also further enhance the recognition of the vehicle.

In the rear part, the new car adopts through-type red light belt design, and the design recognition of the left and right side bifurcation is very high. The lamp group is embedded in the tailbox cover, which leads to the substantially raised ducktail and inclined tailbox lines, highlighting the three-dimensional sense of the vehicle. The rear bumper is wrapped in the same color with a large body, and the exhaust is a bilateral double-out layout to further enhance the sense of movement.

In the interior part, the overall performance of the new car is well-behaved, with brown diamond pattern leather covering, wood grain decoration board and so on, which looks very luxurious. The car is equipped with double 12-inch connected screens, the air conditioning control part adopts touch design, is equipped with HVAC intelligent system controls and infotainment system control shortcuts, and is equipped with 14 stereos of Meridian.

In terms of power, the new roof version will be equipped with a 3.5-liter V6 naturally aspirated engine, with a maximum power of 301 horsepower and a maximum torque of 359 Nm, which is 6 horsepower and 16 Nm higher than the previous 3.3-liter V6 engine, respectively. In terms of transmission system, this power version will match the eight-speed manual transmission and four-wheel drive system. In addition, the Kia K8 will be equipped with a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with a maximum power of 197 horsepower and a maximum torque of 248 Nm. The transmission system will also match the eight-speed manual transmission. At the same time, for the entry-level version of the model, Kia K8 will also be equipped with a 1.6-liter engine.

Kia K8 is a medium and large sedan under Kia, which is built on the same platform as Hyundai Yazun. It was released in February 2021, when Kia released a new brand logo, and Kia K8 became the first model with a new LOGO.

Speaking of Kia Kaizun, many people may not be impressed by it now. The car, which belongs to the same class as Asian Dragon, has been introduced into China, and the Korean market is known as Kia K7. Kia K8 is regarded as the successor model of the car, but so far, it is not clear whether Kia K8 will be introduced into the domestic market.

In sharp contrast to Kia's record global sales, Kia is now very lonely in the Chinese market. Take the 2022 sales data as an example, the risk figures show that Asia's sales in China have been 94345 since 2022, down 40.5% from the same period last year, which is a far cry from the peak of 650000 vehicles in the Chinese market since 2016. The industry believes that the reason why Kia's sales in China have not improved is related to the decline in the brand power of its products and the slow electrification transformation.

To make matters more difficult, the decline in sales comes at the same time as Kia is in an insolvent dilemma in China. As of December 31, 2022, Jiangsu Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd., a Kia joint venture in China, had total liabilities of 2.4768 trillion won (13 billion yuan) and assets of 2.0809 trillion won (10.9 billion yuan), according to the financial report. According to this calculation, Jiangsu Yueda Kia has fallen into the dilemma of insolvency, with an asset-liability ratio of 119.3%.

It should be noted that although Kia's sales in the Chinese market are sluggish, Kia has repeatedly stressed that it will not give up the Chinese market, and whether Kia K8 will be listed domestically remains to be further announced.

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