Kia Motors South Africa will be opening its first eco friendly solar powered dealership in Weltevreden Park. This will be Kia’s flagship dealership and a first on the local automotive industry.

The official construction for this new Kia Motors dealership started in January 2012 and will be completed at the end of January 2013.

Kia Motors solar-powered dealership – Details

The new Kia Motors dealership will be powered by 288 roof mounted solar panels which will create a daily maximum power of 69kW, enough to power an average of 22 households per day. Then as required, the panels will generate energy between three converters which will go directly into the load providing electricity at a capacity of 50Hertz and 240 Volts. The remaining electricity will be stored in three state of the art battery banks. Should the load be affected by a power outage or bad weather conditions, the banks will serve as a back up system.

The building is fitted with low wattage fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps, used in the major areas of the dealership. Standard high base 400 watt lamps are replaced with 4 x 54 Watt lamps which provide the same light but use less energy. To further save energy, occupancy sensors have been installed which will automatically switch on and off if no movement is detected.

Eco-friendly Kia Motors dealership will also save water

As an additional contribution to eco-friendliness, Kia has fitted a filtration system to recycle rain water collected from the facility’s roof. This water will then be distributed into six containers each with a holding capacity of 10000 litres. The filtered water will be used at the facility’s car wash. Thereafter it will be pumped back into the water filtration system which purifies the water from oil, soap or any other dirt. This water is then filtered and pumped back into the containers, to be re-used in the car wash bay.

Kia’s move to eco-friendly products is well underway with vehicles ranging from electrical, hybrid electric and fuel derivatives. As the demand for eco dynamic vehicles increases, these will be made available to markets outside of North America and Europe.

“Although these vehicles are not currently available to the South African market, we have decided to focus our efforts on making the operational side of Kia Motors South Africa as eco-friendly as possible, with Kia Weltevreden being the blueprint for future eco-friendly dealerships. We are very excited about the opening of this new solar-powered dealership, and look forward to Kia consumers experiencing the brand’s true power to surprise”, Said David Sieff, National Marketing Manager of Kia Motors South Africa.