Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Thursday it will sell only electric vehicles in Europe from 2035 and in other major markets from 2040 as it seeks to gradually phase out internal combustion-engine cars in global markets.    Kia announced the 2045 carbon neutrality strategy as governments around the globe are adopting more aggressive policies to fight climate change and carmakers are stepping up efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.    Under th

Mixed production assembly line in Busan plant is key to productivity

Rolls-Royce’s latest model in its bespoke cars lineup, the Black Badge Ghost, is unveiled in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, Wednesday.  The new model is a redesign of the New Ghost released last year. It is topped with a 6.75-liter twin turbo V12 engine and boasts a maximum 600 horsepower.  Retail prices start at 550 million won ($423,000).

The automotive semiconductor shortage is expected to continue until 2023, and the government and related industries should be prepared to handle rising demand, an automotive think tank said Monday. According to the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, or Katech, the global shortage of automotive semiconductors that started around the end of 2020 will continue to affect the global car industry for the first half of 2022. Even after 2023, some companies may still feel its effects. This year

As overseas tourism slowly resumes with travel bubble programs and a rise in vaccination rates, travel to Saipan logged a sharp increase last month, data showed Sunday. According to the Transport Ministry data, passengers going to Saipan from Incheon surged 178.5 percent in October to 3,900 passengers from 1,400 passengers in September. Travel to Saipan also spiked in July when South Korea launched the travel bubble with the country, exempting fully vaccinated people from mandatory quarantin

Korean Air has received an “integrated A grade” for its ESG efforts from the nonprofit ESG rating agency Korea Corporate Governance Service.　 The national flag carrier achieved the marks for the second year running, a recent ESG rating report by KCGS revealed. When broken down by category, the airline received an A for corporate governance, an improvement from last year. The higher score was thanks to the separation of the CEO and the board of directors, appointment of a woman ou

Step-by-step, in line with the government’s plan to gradually return to normalcy with its “living with COVID-19” scheme, the airline industry has begun preparations for more overseas flights. According to full service carriers Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, some overseas flight routes will resume operations next month. Korean Air has decided to resume scheduled flights to Hawaii, Sydney, and Oakland. There will be three flights a week scheduled for Hawaii starting from Nov

Public Wi-Fi provided in intra-city buses will be getting four times faster as it will be upgraded to 5G network service from the current LTE. Starting with 100 pilot buses, which started boasting faster connections on Wednesday, 29,000 buses nationwide will have 5G connections by 2023, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. The speed of Wi-Fi currently available on public buses has a maximum speed of 100Mbps as it relies on LTE networks. It will increase to 400Mbps with the rollout of

South Korean low-cost carrier AeroK says it is hiring flight attendants and forgoing any hair and makeup requirements. The Cheongju-based airline, which launched its first scheduled flight earlier this year, said there are also no requirements in terms of academic background, appearance and age in its recent job postings. “We will not be asking for a photo during the document screening process and will only ask for foreign language skills and extracurricular activities during the first p

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun vowed to cooperate with the Indonesian government in establishing an electric vehicle ecosystem there, during his visit to the Southeast Asian country on Monday. Attending a government briefing event -- “Future EV Ecosystem for Indonesia” -- Chung presented the future vision of his automotive group and plans to cooperate with the Indonesian government to expand its business there, according to Hyundai Motor. “Hyundai Motor Group wil

As part of efforts to grow together with the local community, Mercedes-Benz Korea has continued to invest in research and development, training automotive experts and supporting startups, in addition to expanding its network of service centers. The German automaker runs 60 official showrooms, 75 service centers, four of which opened this year, with more than 1,250 work bays, the largest network for an import car brand in Korea. Mercedes-Benz opened its training academy in Korea in 2015, its t

Edison Motors will ask for a loan of some 700 billion to 800 billion won ($596 million-$681 million) from Korea Development Bank to acquire the troubled SsangYong Motor, its chief executive officer said Friday. The electric bus maker-led consortium looks set to be chosen as the preferred bidder for the debt-ridden SsangYong, after a bankruptcy court eliminated its strong contender from the competition, citing doubts over its funding capability. Holding an online press conference, Edison Moto

Korean Air said on Friday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, for technical cooperation to develop a lightweight and modularized tactical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, also known as a VTOL. The cooperation will see the companies combine their core technologies -- Korean Air’s expertise in unmanned aerial vehicle development and production and Insitu’s state-of-the-art UAV technologies including high-performance mission equipment, sy

Samsung SDI announced Friday a joint venture with the world’s No. 4 automaker Stellantis to build an electric battery production plant in the United States. The two inked a memorandum of understanding on Friday, the Korean firm said. Stellantis is the first global automaker that Samsung SDI has forged a joint venture with. Samsung did not elaborate on further details of the joint entity. “We are happy to form a joint venture with Stellantis. We will do our best to satisfy custom

Korean Air said Wednesday it would resume flights to Hawaii starting Nov. 3 while Hawaiian Airlines announced plans to expand flights on the route to four times a week. Korean Air’s operation on the route was suspended in April last year due to COVID-19. The Incheon-Honolulu KE053 flight will operate three days a week, departing from Incheon International Airport every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday night. The KE054 flight departing from Honolulu for Incheon will also operate on the same