Seoul Motor Show to kick off on March 29

Seoul Motor Show 2013 will kick off an 11-day run on March 29 at KINTEX in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. Organizers said Wednesday the ninth show will be the biggest event ever, aiming at drawing about 1.2 million visitors.

“This will be the third largest auto show in the world in terms of venue size and number of visitors,” Huh Wan, secretary-general of the Organizing Committee for Seoul Motor Show, said during a news conference at Lotte Hotel Seoul.

The biannual show will take place at both KINTEX Hall 1 and Hall 2, which has been newly completed.

Huh said the show will host various sub-events such as an international technology seminar, car design contest and environmentally-friendly car test drive.

Under the theme of “With nature, for the people,” the event will be participated in by 331 firms from 13 countries including automakers and parts suppliers.

All five domestic brands _ Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Samsung and Ssangyong _ will display their latest vehicles during the show, and a wider range of imported automakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW/MINI, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Ford will also be represented.

It will showcase nine world, 15 Asia and 18 Korea premiere vehicles during the event. A total of 15 concept cars as well as 34 environmentally-friendly vehicles will also be on display.

The organizing committee will also invite about 15,000 foreign buyers to the show where an after-market special section will be featured.

Officials said this will be also a good chance for local parts makers to showcase their products to foreign automakers.

Ticket prices are 10,000 won for adults and 7,000 won for elementary and secondary school students. Visitors can have 2,000 won discount with online purchases at ticket.auction.co.kr from March 4.