Kia’s choice to introduce a new logo last year appears to have confused thousands of potential consumers throughout the world.
The Kia brand debuted its new logo in January 2021, connecting the letters “K,” “I,” and “A,” as contrast to its previous emblem, which had the letters clearly recognizable inside an oval form. The new logo debuted in Australia in May 2021 with the Kia Cerato compact car, and it is currently used for all new Kia vehicles sold in the nation, according to Drive.
Ashwinn Krishnaswamy shared data on Twitter revealing that about 30,000 individuals looked for “KN automobile” on Google in recent months, mistaking Kia’s new emblem with the two letters of the KN brand.
the new kia logo is so unreadable that at least 30k people a month search for the "KN car" ever since its debut pic.twitter.com/jRj25JoAPp
— Ashwinn (@Shwinnabego) November 17, 2022
American magazine Tire Meets Road estimates there are more than 1.8 million Google searches for ‘Kia’ internationally each month – roughly 60 times the amount of 30,000 persons searching for ‘KN vehicle’. A Google search for ‘KN vehicle’ yields a suggestion for Kia’s website, however it’s unclear if this was paid for by Kia or generated by a search engine algorithm.
Searches for ‘KN vehicle’ peaked in January of this year, but have subsequently declined, according to Tire Meets Road, with the downward trend attributed to more people knowing and recognizing the new emblem.