BMW, Kia take Red Dot design awards

Kia and BMW have been crowned Red Dot Design Award winners, taking the "best-of-best" awards in the transportation product design category.

The awards, handed out March 15, single out the best-designed products from over 4,000 entries, across a variety of categories.

This year, there were three 'best-of' winners in the "Automobiles, transportation, commercial & water vehicles" category - BMW, Kia and Stadler Altenrhein, a train manufacturer.

BMW took the award for the 5 Series Touring, an estate vehicle with the longest wheelbase in its segment and a sloping roofline which BMW says offers a "modern and emotional aesthetic."

Kia won recognition for its mid-size Optima Sedan, which offers "uncomplicated shapes" that the automaker says "draw the attention of the eye in much the same fashion as a perfectly tailored, fine Italian suit."

Stadler Altenrhein was the only non-automaker to take a best-of-best award, for the Zweispannungstriebzug, a train designed for Swiss rail company Rhatische Bahn.

Although the judging panel, comprised of leading product designers from around the world, picked those three as the best of the best, they lauded several other vehicles in the category, including the Opel Meriva, the Kia Sportage, the Volkswagen Touareg and Sharan and the BMW X3 and 6-Series Cabrio.

http://www.red-dot.de