Back in January 2021, Korean car maker Kia revealed its new logo: a stylised take on its original ‘KIA’ badge, without the oval and with a sharper, more cyberpunk look to it. While it looks more modern, the new Kia logo has people googling ‘KN car’ in confusion.
Last year in July, Gizmodo reported on a Reddit post of someone confused about new ‘KM cars’, some months after the new badge was revealed. Back then, car websites were saying that the new logo does in fact look like a ‘KN’.
Car lovers might be able to tell that these cars with new logos are, in fact, Kias, either knowing about the logo change or having a familiarity with Kia’s design language, but there’s still quite a bit of ‘KN’ confusion.
Last week, Twitter user @Shwinnabego spotted that there was an uptick in people googling ‘KN Car’, based on search data.
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
Punching ‘KN Car’ into Google Trends, and yup, not only is there a large search volume for ‘KN Car’ internationally (and in Australia), but it has become a noticeably more prominent search since Kia unveiled the new badge (understandably after a few months, as newly badged Kias were hitting the road). The new logo was unveiled on January 6, 2021.
Google Trends indicates that most searchers are indeed looking for Kia, with the carmaker listed as a related topic and query. That being said, according to Solera, a ‘KN car’ is also an abbreviation of a German phrase: Keine Numer. This means ‘no number’, and applies to car repairs. Fun fact, I guess.
There’s also nothing wrong with mistaking it for the Nine Inch Nails logo.
KIA’s new logo makes me want to listen to NIN (loudly) pic.twitter.com/ah4TdgbLvI
— _ (@MissFit_) July 14, 2021
Anyway, here’s a PSA: if you spot a shmancy new KN car on the road, it’s probably a Kia with a new logo. The line that strikes through the A, along with a line that separates the top and bottom of the central ‘I’ is absent.
“Kia’s new logo represents the company’s commitment to becoming an icon for change and innovation,” the president and CEO of Kia Ho Sung Song said when the logo was unveiled in January 2021.
Not to mouth off Kia, but removing key letter parts in your logo doesn’t appear to be all that innovative.
Thankfully, the recent Kia EV6 and the Kia Niro EV are both fantastic vehicles, logo aside.