Kia’s modern logo rebrand, unveiled in the 2021, was received relatively well albeit with a few voices saying it wasn’t clear enough.
It turns out that some of those voices might be right, as Google data shows people aren’t sure what the logo means when they’re seeing it out in the wild.
A post on the r/cars subreddit by user u/xxsuperxscopes pointed out that searches for ‘KN car’ have risen dramatically since Kia rolled out the new logo, so we thought we’d investigate.
Kia’s global press release about its new logo was published on January 6, 2021, so what we expected to see in the time since is a steady rise in searches for ‘KN car’ and, thanks to a quick look at Google Trends, we weren’t disappointed.
After a spike in searches for ‘Kia logo’ on the week of the announcement, searches for that term declined and have since held relatively steady.
Searches for the phrase ‘KN car’ have, however, gradually risen since January 2021, at about the rate you’d expect as cars with the new Kia badge roll onto the streets, or signage appears in dealerships.
When we specifically queried Australian search data, it turned out there was no discernable jump in searches for ‘KN car’.
Instead, it appears that the US is driving this trend, with searches for ‘KN car’ at some points (especially recently) outranking ‘Kia logo’ for interest.
An example in the wild we spotted was a post on the r/whatisthiscar subreddit featuring a photo of the rear of a Kia Carnival with the new logo.
To Kia’s credit, the poster was a fan of the car, albeit unsure what the logo meant.
While Americans grapple with the new logo, seemingly unaware that the N would have to be backwards on the logo for their searches to make sense, Australians seem to be completely aware of Kia’s new branding.
CarsGuide has contacted Kia Australia for comment.
Keyword: Kia's new logo is still confusing people in America, here's the data to prove it