Qoros Vs. Quoris Court Challenge Creates Marketing Headache for Kia

Its plant in Changsu, China, remains under construction and not a single production-ready vehicle exists, but Shanghai-based Qoros Auto is causing major branding problems for South Korea’s Kia.

Kia launched its first rear-drive fullsize luxury car as the K9 in Korea in May, but in July announced the vehicle would be called the Quoris in export markets, including the U.S. if the auto maker decides to sell it there.

However, Qoros Auto, founded in 2007 as a 50-50 joint venture between Chery Automobile of Wuhu, China, and Israel Corp., a major investment holding company based in Tel Aviv, plans to market its cars under the Qoros badge – a close match to Quoris.

Qoros says it has the brand legally trademarked in China, Europe, North America and virtually all significant markets. So it filed suit in a district court in Hanover, Germany, and now has obtained a preliminary injunction against Kia, preventing it from using the name Quoris anywhere within the European Union.

“We are pleased with the decision of the court as we succeeded in our first step towards protecting our brand name,” Qoros Chairman Volker Steinwascher says in a statement. “We look forward to the first public debut of our vehicles at both the Geneva and the Shanghai auto shows in 2013.”

While it obviously poses a problem for Kia’s export strategy, global spokesman Michael Choo says the European injunction does not impact the auto maker’s marketing plans in Europe.

“This is a complete non-issue for us as Kia never had plans to market the Quoris in Europe,” Choo tells WardsAuto.

With respect to exporting the vehicle to the U.S., Choo notes that Kia Motors America has not made a decision on launch timing or the overall viability of the model for that market.

Analysts note Kia could challenge the injunction or elect to market the vehicle abroad under another name, possibly even the K9.

Choo says the vehicle is doing well as the K9 in a down market in Korea, with sales totaling 6,614 units from May through October.

In announcing the Quoris name in July, Kia said it represented a combination of the words for core and quality.

“The name of our new flagship sedan hints at the attributes at the very heart of the vehicle,” Thomas Oh, executive vice president-International Business Div., said at the time. “The word ‘Quoris’ conveys solidity, luxury and high technology, all resonating together as a chorus.”

Qoros’ plant is expected to have initial capacity for 150,000 vehicles annually, with room to someday triple output to 450,000 units per year.

The company’s signature logo is a letter Q, flattened to form a box, making it different from most European car logos, which are circular.