As further evidence of its development as a global car maker, Kia Motors Corporation has now been presented with two significant international certificates which confirm that the design and manufacturing processes behind the successful Kia cee'd range of vehicles are, indeed, "environmentally-friendly".

The globally recognised, German-based, TÜV NORD presented Kia with a DFE (Design for Environment) and a LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) environment certificate at a special ceremony in Seoul last week after rigorous inspection of the company's design and manufacturing operations at Zilina in Slovakia. The Kia cee'd, which was designed for and made in Europe at Zilina, is the first Korean brand car to receive such recognition.

"The awarding of two international environment certificates for the Kia cee'd and its excellent 5-star rating in EuroNCAP crash testing are first-time achievements for a Korean automotive company of which we can all be proud," commented Mr. Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, International Business Division of Kia Motors Corporation.

"Our Zilina facility was environmentally certified in 2007 and later this year we will start manufacturing cee'd vehicles with fuel-stretching and CO2-reducing technologies from our experimental eco_cee'd line-up, further underlining Kia's strong and continuing drive to minimise its impact on the environment," concluded Mr. Lee.

DFE (ISO 14062) evaluates a car's environmental friendliness during its design and development, plus the ease with which the car can be disassembled and how much of its can be recycled. DFE also requires that the assembly plant for the car reaches ISO 14001.

LCA (ISO 14040) examines both the car's overall manufacturing process and its lifetime environmental impact, including choice of materials - the cee'd features lightweight all-aluminium engines (weighing 15 kg less) and door trim panels formed from Kenaf recycled materials - and measures to reduce fuel consumption and engine exhaust emissions.

Last year, Kia's all-new car and engine manufacturing plant in Zilina was certified as an 'environmentally-friendly' facility when Kia Motors Slovakia (KMS), which operates the plant, was officially presented with an ISO 14001 international certificate of environmental management. Many of the production and waste-management technologies in operation at Zilina are among the very best available in the world, with a minimised impact on the environment.

"When launching vehicle and component production, we focused our attention on observing all environmental regulations and norms and abiding by all laws, in both spirit and letter," explained KMS President In-Kyu Bae.

"Personally, I am very glad we had a chance to prove our commitment to being 'environmentally-friendly' and to having this clearly confirmed by receiving the internationally renowned environmental certificate ISO 14001 within a year from the launch of volume production in December 2006."