And curious visitors from other countries and Korea as well are drawn to the show to see what is happening in the world of cars.
After the opening ceremony on April 6, the show floor was flooded with the crowds of people looking over, touching, and getting into the cars all over the exhibition hall. Crowds of students wandered around in large packs, looking at all the new models.
Many faces from many places could be seen examining the latest that the automotive industry has to offer.
CEO and President John Lee of Leozone is very happy to be at the show. Dr. Lee is here showcasing the products of his one year old company, a line of electric motorcycles, motor scooters, cars, trucks, and tourist busses. When asked about his expectations of the event, Dr. Lee said: "I have spoken to one buyer already, and I am meeting five more today." CEO Lee also mentioned that his flagship car is slated to be available in late May or early June, and that from the first hour of the first day of the Seoul Motor Show he already finished a large order to ship his first cars to Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, Australia.
Dirk Karbun, international direct sales manager for sales and alliances at the BMW Group also commented on environmentally friendly cars at the show. He said that wide usage of hybrid cars that use non-gasoline fuel such as electricity or biodiesel do not have as good of an effect on the environment as some people think, because the production of energy for the individual cars must still be performed by existing energy infrastructure burning fossil fuels.
If a car uses biodiesel the production of biodiesel still requires large amounts of fossil fuel energy from power plants. Similarly, creating electric powered cars still requires large amounts of electricity, which is normally produced by burning fossil fuels. Karbun noted that for the environment to be protected by energy usage the entire energy infrastructure must be recreated using clean sources. He noted that his company's Hydrogen 7 automobile was an example of preparation for this new clean energy future.
Chandra Vir Sing, vice president of Tata Daewoo, and his colleague Menon S.U.K., vice president of finance and business planning also of Tata Daewoo, say that they are thoroughly enjoying the show. They notice a much greater variety of automobiles at this show and especially enjoy the concept cars by Hyundai and KIA.
When asked how this show compares to the automotive industry in their home country of India, Chandra said that the diversity of the car models are approaching that of Indian's more open car market and he considers that to be a very good thing.
Jeffrey Eggen, regional manager for Ford Asia Pacific, comments on the show by saying that Ford hopes the Mondeo works as well in Asia as it has done so far in Europe. His company is interested in gaining market share within the Korean market especially. He also speaks on the particular difficulties of integrating Ford's integrated telematics hardware with Korea's mapping software by saying: "It's harder to get good satellite images here because of the security problem, but Ford has gotten together with a local provider and just included maps of Korea along with Europe and the US in their onboard telematics system." The unique challenges for GPS and satellite mapping due to North Korea's constant presence are sure to be an interesting point to consider at the Telematics Forum this week.
Stephen Nicholls, regional director of the Asia Pacific division of Saab, spoke at length about the future of fuel in cars. When asked about the difference between the new SAAB BioPower and the BMW Hydrogen 7, he said: "Hydrogen power is something that might happen 40 to 50 years in the future. But its two or three steps away. The next immediate step is biofuel." He also spoke about fuel cells being an important technology which is an intermediate step on the path to perfectly environmentally-friendly automobiles.
Wayne Draper visits the show as a buyer representing the Australian company that purchased Leozone's first electric car models. He is also a car designer with 20 years experience designing automobiles for Ford Motor Company. He says that he is impressed by the Korean automobile companies' design vision this year. In previous Seoul Motor Shows he felt like the design evolution in Korea's automobiles was always lagging one generation behind the rest of the world, but the new 2007 concept cars and production cars are now on par with the best offerings of the rest of the globe. He also said: "I think the new Honda Civic hybrid they have over there is really sweet."
Olivier Floch, an exchange student from France studying business administration at Seoul National University, is also impressed at the show. He really liked the Volvo C30 2.4 I and KIA concept cars. He spoke about Volvo by saying: "I've never seen anything like that before, everything that is in the car is to my taste." He mentioned that he felt KIA was both affordable and awesome. In comparing the cars to other companies' offerings, he said: "Some of the American cars disappointed me. I think KIA did a way better job. They are really beautiful and their features don't seem to be any different than any other cars." He said if he had to choose between them, he would choose Volvo.
Paul Perren also visited the Seoul Motor Show, a classmate of Olivier Floch in the business administration department of Seoul National University. In contrast to his friend, he said he would pick the KIA. He said: "I thought the design was very amazing and it's just very new and innovative. I really like KIA. It is the most intriguing out of all the cars we've seen today." He said that most of his friends drive Volvos back home, which is why the KIA looks so interesting to him.
A truly international crowd with a variety of backgrounds and expertise has gathered together at this Seoul Motor Show. The Show has thoroughly reached its goal of becoming an international venue, with its booths filled with the world's people. This truly marks a new chapter in the Korean automobile market.
