Images of new Kia K900 officially unveiled

Kia reveals first glimpse of all-new K900 luxury sedan (Courtesy of Kia)

Kia has been releasing teaser images and artist impressions of the second generation of its K900 full-size luxury sedan for a while now. But after photographs of the real thing from a slide presentation emerged and were posted online by a Korean motoring website Monday, the manufacturer has now released images on its own website.

It was previously announced that the car would get a full reveal at the upcoming New York International Auto Show, but the dates on the slideshow suggested some sort of official unveiling was set to take place much sooner. Whether the leaking of the images brought the official images forward is unclear, but the dates on the slideshow suggest it may have always been planned for Kia to put them up itself on Tuesday.

There's no getting away from the fact Kia has made great strides in reinventing itself as a much more dynamic, desirable and quality brand in recent years, and the days of being a manufacturer of "cheap and cheerful" vehicles are now firmly behind it. However, the company's attempt to take on the likes of BMW and Mercedes in the luxury sedan segment with the K900 hasn't exactly been a roaring success. But despite what can best be described as modest sales of the K900 since its launch in 2012, the South Korean automaker isn't giving up and admitting defeat by any means.

If the company had wanted to give the impression the new K900 (or K9, as it is called outside North America) wasn't heavily influenced by the likes of the BMW 7 Series, the design of the new generation is saying something different. Everything about it is extremely German, to say the least, and without a Kia badge on it there's a possibility it could even be taken for something inspired by a Maybach. The car features a minimalist interior with customizable mood lighting, and the dashboard includes a manual dial to rotate through functions as well as a clock from Swiss watchmaker Maurice Lacroix.

Regardless of how good and how luxurious the new K900 turns out to be though, it's still got an uphill battle on its hands to woo buyers away from Mercedes and BMW in this particular area of the market. Kia has to be given immense credit for the inroads it's made into segments it wasn't traditionally a major player in, and the Stinger is a great example of how the brand can successfully force its way into a new genre. But in the luxury sedan class badges carry an awful lot of weight, so Kia will still probably have its work cut out with this one.

The car will get its global debut at the New York International Auto Show on March 28 and will roll out to international markets starting in the second quarter of 2018.