South Korea's major newpaper Chosun Daily News reported on July 29th that Peter Schreyer of the Audi fame and currently at Volkwagen is moving to Kia to head its global design. With Peter Schreyer moving in, Kia will set up a European stuido in Frankfurt which is already a home to several other OEM studios.
Kia, since its buy out by Hyundai, suffered brand identity crisis as both companies came up with designs based on similar market parameters. According to undisclosed Kia official, Peter Schreyer will help the company to differentiate itself from Hyundai.
Invitation of Peter Schreyer is definitely a right move for Kia. However it seems like Kia doesn't know the real culprit of its failure in brand identity. In my opinion, differentiating Kia from Hyundai depends heavily on revolutionizing the decision making process within the Hyundai Motors group which has taken lackluster steps in regard to this issue in the past. Peter Schreyer can present ideas based on his own view of global market and experiences at Volkswagen and Audi. But the designer is not a final decision maker in the company and in case of Kia, its brand identity crisis is much more than the problems with its product design. Real problem lies in the Hyundai Motors Group leaders who has vague idea of what Kia needs to be. If the Hyundai Motors Group leaders think that Peter Schreyer and his modernistic design can save Kia, they are totally wrong. Car that performas like Hyundai or Toyata but looks like Audi will be able to deceive market for sometime but without necessary step up in the performance, it will fail eventually. And I personally don't think Peter Schreyer will stay with Kia for a long time. Kia is not a good portfolio for him anyway.
