Towner

The Towner is a Korean-market light commercial van and truck. Asia Motors launched it in 1992 under a technical partnership with Daihatsu, building a licensed version of the seventh-generation Hijet at its Gwangju plant. A 1997 grille redesign put the Kia logo on it, and Asia Motors was absorbed by Kia in 1999, so the plant became Kia's Gwangju works. The Kia badge therefore appeared two years before the merger, on a van that had already been in production since 1992. Production ended in 2002, ten years after it began.