Who owns Kia?
Kia is owned by Hyundai Motor Group (South Korea, KRX: 005380), which has owned the brand since 16 October 1998.[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Hyundai Motor Company Annual Report 2025, 20 March 2026. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Hyundai Motor Company reported
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇰🇷 South Korea, Seoul
- Origin
- 🇰🇷 South Korea
- Founded
- 1944
- Category
- Automotive › Cars › Mass-market cars
- Parent ticker
- KRX: 005380
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Kia
Kia began making bicycle parts in 1944 and was bought by Hyundai in 1998 after the Asian financial crisis, so the two brands that appear to compete are the same group. Its design turnaround was led by a designer poached from Audi.
Ownership timeline of Kia
- 1998 – present Hyundai Motor Group [1] reported
Where Kia sits in Hyundai Motor Group
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Hyundai Motor Group ownership tree →
See the full Hyundai Motor Group brand portfolio (3) →
Other brands owned by Hyundai Motor Group
Hyundai Motor Group controls 3 brands on Brandtree, 3 of them in automotive.
Also in automotive
Other brands in mass-market cars, and who owns them
The 53 brands in mass-market cars on Brandtree belong to 24 owners. The largest is Stellantis, with 9; Hyundai Motor Group has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Chrysler | Stellantis | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| GWM Pickup | Great Wall Motor | 🇨🇳 China |
| CHERY | Chery | 🇨🇳 China |
| BDS Suspension | Fox Factory | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Buick | General Motors | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Roewe | SAIC Motor | 🇨🇳 China |
| Daihatsu | Toyota | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| SEAT | Volkswagen Group | 🇩🇪 Germany |
About the owner: Hyundai Motor Group
Hyundai Motor Group is a publicly listed company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, founded in 1967. Brandtree records 3 brands under its control, and it is listed as KRX: 005380.
Hyundai and Kia are the same group, holding cross-shareholdings that make them a single business competing against itself in showrooms. Together they are among the three largest carmakers in the world, having moved from a byword for cheapness to genuine engineering credibility within thirty years.
Hyundai Motor Group: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇰🇷 Kia and other South Korean brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 185 brands that began in South Korea. 7 of them (4%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Kia is not one of them.
- 4DX — CJ CGV 🇰🇷
- A Café La — Binggrae 🇰🇷
- A-Solution — Aekyung 🇰🇷
- Absolute — Maeil Dairies 🇰🇷
- Aero K — Aero K 🇰🇷
- Air Premia — Air Premia 🇰🇷
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Kia?
The parent company of Kia is Hyundai Motor Group, a publicly listed company headquartered in South Korea.
Is Kia South Korean?
Yes. Kia originated in South Korea in 1944 and its owner, Hyundai Motor Group, is also headquartered in South Korea.
Since when has Hyundai Motor Group owned Kia?
Hyundai Motor Group has owned Kia since 16 October 1998.
Is Kia still owned by Hyundai Motor Group?
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, Kia is still owned by Hyundai Motor Group. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Hyundai Motor Company Annual Report 2025 — Hyundai Motor Company, Annual report, published 20 March 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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