Kia will launch a new rear-drive flagship, the K9.

Kia has been doggedly moving up-market, in recent years, and with the launch of its new K9 luxury flagship it will mark a dramatic shift from the cheap-and-cheerful little econoboxes that used to define the Korean carmaker’s line-up.

The formal announcement of the rear-drive model echoes the strategy followed by sibling brand Hyundai, which scored big with the launch of the big Genesis sedan in 2007, and last year’s launch of the even larger and more upscale Equus.

While Kia isn’t releasing details on the K9, it’s believed to be sharing many of the same underpinnings – and powertrain options – of the rear-drive Hyundai line, such as the 5.0-liter direct-injection V-8 offered in both the Genesis and Equus.

Though traditional Korea buyers might be surprised to see such a large and lavishly equipped offering at their local Kia showroom the new K9 won’t seem completely unfamiliar.  It features the brand’s stock pinched grille and fender vents.  But the overall design feel is more elegant if not exactly all-new.  There is at least one place where the maker nudges the cutting edge, opting for LED headlamps as well as taillights, technology the rest of the luxury market is just migrating to.

The K9 adopts LED lamps front and rear.

There’s a decidedly European feel to the exterior, with flared shoulders designed to project power and the long, sloping, almost coupe-like roofline that has become a familiar luxury design cue.  No surprise considering Kia’s design director Peter Schreyer was lured away from Audi a few years back.

Kia describes the overall look as “imposing and characterful,” Soon-Nam Lee, Director of the Overseas Marketing Group, contending the K9 was, “created without compromise in its design, driving performance and new technologies.  K9 sets a whole new level of standards and values in the large sedan segment, and its design will be another Kia demonstration of our brand’s power to surprise the world.”

The name may strike Americans as funny but it follows the classic Kia nomenclature.  In the home market the car we know as the Optima is sold as the K5, while Kia’s version of the Hyundai Azera is the K7 in Korea – and the Cadenza in other markets.

Kia previously released this sketch of what it has now dubbed the K9.

The K represents not only Kia, the maker contends, but also the Greek word, kratos, which translates in “powerful,” and the English word, “kinetic.”

Nonetheless, the maker would probably be barking up the wrong tree to carry the K9 designation to the U.S. and will almost certainly look for a more acceptable alternative before heading State-side.

The K9 will make its Korean market debut during the first half of this year but we won’t find out about timing for the U.S. and other markets until later.