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UK: Kia aims to increase sales with new Rio, Picanto and Soul CUV
Kia Motors UK plans to introduce new Rio, Soul CUV and Picanto mini-car to increase its sales!
Kia Motors announced aims to increase its yearly sales from 56.000 units – achieved in 2010 to as much as 70.000 units in the next 24 months. To achieve the 70.000 units sales mark, the fastest growing South Korean carmaker plans to introduce a number of stylish vehicles with great fuel economy to the consumers in the UK.
The all-new Kia Picanto is just around the corner. With its fresh new styling and improved safety, the new Picanto is expected to retain as one of the top selling Kia cars in Britain. Kia aims to sell 6.500 units of Picanto this year and increase its sales to 15.000 units when the three-door and five-door Picanto are available. The carmaker also wants to grab a 10 percent share of the city car segment in 2012.
Following the new Picanto city car will be the all-new Rio hatchback, which is scheduled to go on sale in the UK in September this year. According to Michael Cole, the 2012 Rio will be the main volume booster. “Historically the car has been a little bland and has not done too well for Kia but the all-new car is much more dynamic and “European” therefore I hope it will do for us in the B segment what cee’d did in the C segment,” said Michael Cole, Kia UK managing director.
Before the end of 2011 Kia will also introduce a mid-size Optima sedan with 1,7L diesel engine mated to six-speed manual or automatic transmission. Kia does not expect large volume sales for the new Optima D-segment car – certainly not to Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Insignia levels. “New Optima is a model that will showcase what Kia can do and I believe it will sell quite well,” commented Michael Cole.
In autmun this year, Kia also plans to put on sale a refreshed Soul crossover vehicle. The 2012 Model Year Kia Soul has been unveiled at the New York Auto Show in April and brings a number of styling updates and technical enhancements to the Soul lineup. Kia will release more technical details about its updated Soul towards the end of the year.
Note: If you’re in the UK looking for car insurance uk check out car insurance and car breakdown cover online!
Hey Kia Motors America: bring the Picanto over here! The Rio is too big to compete with the smart, Fiat 500, and even the MINI Cooper. A small, fuel efficient vehicle would sell, and with fuel prices of gasoline over 4$ in many places, small and fuel efficient is what people will be looking for.
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Until then I guess I will have to visit our friends “across the Pond” to check this (and all the Euro vehicles with diesel engines). Good luck Kia UK!
All well and good saying that we want to increase sales to 70k but first you need to be able to supply cars. Currently I have customers who have been waiting six months for Sportages. Can’t see a Picanto or Rio customer waiting that long!
Supply seems to be a huge problem worldwide. If HKAG had the production capacity, they could probably be worldwide best seller.
Hurry and bring on the new Picanto to North America, NOW! With Kia`s superior Fit & Finish, better Warrantee, and reliability, it would have a huge advantage over the new Fiat 500, Mini-Cooper, etc. All those upscale options (Power Moonroof, etc) and safety components PLUS over 50 mpg spells……Winner!
Yeah…they aren’t going to bring the Picanto over here. They do have a serious problem meeting demand, though.
Who knows anymore. It was supposed to be out this fall, now it’s supposed to be out next February. I don’t even care anymore. Maybe we should ignore it…..after all, a watch-pot never boils.
Not the Kia Cruze. I mean Snuze.
Lets just get the new 2012 Kia Rio5 to the Dealerships as quickly as possible and the Cadenza will show up when it does.
Don’t even THINK about seeing a 2012 Rio5 on dealer lots until October, maybe even November. And you won’t see 2012 Rios on their website until March. Not to get you down, but this is Kia’s track record.
Why do you act like Nissan is Kia’s biggest competitor? Kia needs to “take down” Ford more than anything. Nissan is easy, Kia wouldn’t develop a vehicle specifically to compete with a Nissan. Once Kia can kill Ford, it will be a triumphant day. HKAG as a whole can beat Ford, but not alone. So screw Nissan, they obviously aren’t trying to compete anymore, anyway.
Greg……easy. Ford will be impossible to takedown period. It will likely be the only standing American Car manufacturer left in a decade or so. Fiat will eventually dump their investment with Chrysler and write it off. GM will linger a bit longer with foreign sales and (never) completely pay off the Federal loans that kept them alive. Give credit where credit is do, Alan Mullally as CEO and Bill Ford Jr.have done a great job leading Ford to becoming America`s premium car manufacturer. There is plenty of room for both Kia, Hyundai and Ford to compete in the World Marketplace.
True Kia will never surpass Ford overall sales because of the F-Series, but in every other class, I think outselling them is an attainable goal. Just look at the Fusion…….need I say more?
The Sonata outsells the Fusion, so the Optima potentially could someday. The Elantra also outsells the Focus, and I have no doubt the new Accent will outsell the Fiesta. Hyundai is closer to outselling Ford than Kia, but like I said, Kia could get there…with the exception of the F-series.
I`m sure the new 2012 Hyundai Accent will out sell the Fiesta, right! At $17,500 with no available Leather option or Power Moonroof, I doubt it. Maybe the elcheapo $12.500 GLS with no A/C, no radio, Standard transmission, with those “cute” black painted exterior mirrors and door handles as well as those darling 14“ steel wheels/tires with covers…Maybe for the RentalCar Fleets. The Kia Rio and Rio5 will out sell the Accent (IF) the availability is there. The old Rio5 never sold mostly due to the fact that Kia dealers were not able to get any inventory.
I’ve always been a Ford guy, but Hyundai & Kia inparticular are making real strides in the automotive world for sure. If I had to chose a replacement for my current vehicle, an 06 Mazda3s, I would take a good hard look at the upcoming Kia Rio5 for sure, it looks awesome, I love the 6 speed & GDI 1.6 offering in this! I saw a prototype with a little camo & I was very impressed by what I saw!
I bought a 2011 Ford Fiesta SE hatchback last July and love it. Was considering the new 2012 Ford Focus too, but don`t want two similar looking vehicles parked next to each other in my driveway even in different colors. I`m waiting on the new 2012 Kia Rio5 Hatchback with LED Drl`s, Tail Lights, Projector Headlights, Power Moonroof, bring it on! Look at the Kia Web Site for upcoming vehicles and drool.
john and Philip-agreed. I am a Mitsubishi man 1st off but I’m here because I’ve owned 2 new Kia’s before and have tasted their excellence first-hand. I hate that Kia can’t make a pickup like the Mojave they were bantering around the net several years ago. So many Americans, like I said, are so hung up on historical Fo-Mo-Co and nationalism and giving “jobs and sales away” to companies like Hyundai and Kia that they cut off their noses to spite their face and go with a new Ford. But OTOH, Philip, I was basically almost drooling over the new ’11 Ford Fiesta myself. I would go there in Elko, NV, every night late, Gallagher Ford, and stare at the first sedan they got in with a manual tranny. It was blue, the lowest end Fiesta sedan with a 5-speed stick, and they only wanted $14,750 or something like that fot it. But then again, back in 2006 before Mitsu came out with the Lancer and Lancer GTS and Lancer X, I was staring at a 2007 Toyota Yaris 4-dr. sedan with a 5-speed. Before that I was all hung up on a polar white 2006 Scion xA with a 5-speed stick for only $14,195!!! See what I mean! I’ll stray to another maker but I don’t have Jay Leno’s cash and only run 1 rig at a time. I’m set with my Lancer GTS 2008 for several more years and I’m happy with it. The 2012 Ford Focus and the 2012 Kia Rio5 have my eye but I’m stayin’ with what I have. Heck, I even freaked over a 2010 Suzuki Kizashi, bright red with a 6-speed stick for only $22,395. I test drove and automatic CVT ’10 Kizashi and loved it! It was down in Henderson, NV, 8 miles from the Strip in Vegas, in April 2010. I went in to negotiations for the red 6-speed Kizashi and they went all hardball on me and the deal fell through or I’d be driving a 2010 Suzuki Kizashi, red in color with all available options and the 6-speed manual transmission right now! I am all about the car I fall for and will stray from Mitsubishi and Kia if just the right rig comes my way. Car nutty would be one way ta put it, gentlemen. Open to new ideas and change, I’m sayin’ it.
The only knock I have against (both) Mitsubishi products and Suzuki vehicles are both sub-par residual trade in values and horrible fuel economy. Every year when I attend the Miami International Auto Show in the Fall, I notice the EPA Fuel Economy Ratings of the Mitsubishi and Suzuki line and they are never comparable to other manufacturers FE numbers. And talk about trade in residual values, although Hyundai and Kia still have a way to go, compared with both the Mits and Suzu, they are much better and continue to improve every year with more public acceptance of their improved quality. As one who trades in vehicles every 4 or 5 years, residual value is a major factor for me. If you drive a vehicle until you sell it by the pound for scrap, not so much.
I hate beating a dead horse, but do we have any idea when the forums will be back up? They have been down for well over a year now and I miss them 🙁
I still have all kinds of auto show pics from over a year ago…but nowhere to put them. The last autoshow I posted on the forums was Chicago 2010.
All the Kias in my family have equity. Mostly because we paid so much less than sticker for them. Especially the 2009 Amanti…sticker was $32,990, dealer dumped it as a demo (after sitting on the lot for 2 years, 5100 miles) for a mere $23,595 out the door. I tell ya, the Amanti is the car biz’ best kept secret. Driving that thing is such a pleasure. With the sparkly chrome wheels in platinum gray..it is actually a sharp, sharp car. monoblack leather interior with leather EVERYWHERE…fabric on the pillars, too. That car hauls @$$ when you put your foot in it. 3.8L is a big engine for that car.
Not bashing either Mitsubishi or Suzuki products at all. Just saying…… comparing their entire fleet of vehicles with the EPA Fuel Economy figures they post on their MSRP stickers, they do (not) compete well with a lot of other manufacturers. Resale values in real time like Auto Auctions also show they return horrible residual values. That said, the quality, fit, finish is not a problem and both those car makers make very good vehicles. Its just that they are not competitive in Fuel Economy or Residual Trade In Value. If your keeping a car for 10 years, it won`t make any difference whatsoever except for the extra fuel that was consumed. With Gasoline at $4.00 @ gallon, I don`t consider 21 mpg city or 31 mpg highway acceptable numbers. My 2011 Ford Fiesta SE hatchback (smaller vehicle) gets 34 mpg city and 41 mpg highway with automatic transmission and A/C on constantly. Hope that the new 2012 Kia Rio5 will even improve on that.
Philip-all I care about is my car. And my car, a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS, returns great ghastly mileage. And the ’08 Lancer GTS is worth more than I owe. Period. That’s all I’m sayin’. Snap.
Bryan, I`m happy for both You and (your) cars! Chill out and don`t be so defensive. Even though you ended your post with “Snap” whatever thats supposed to mean, I will just finally say, Your certainly entitled to your own opinions, like everyone else included myself, but your (not) entitled to your own Facts! You define “ghastly” great fuel economy is 21 mpg city and 31 mpg highway? Snap. Thats all I`m sayin`.
Snap just means to me that that’s all I have ta say. I’m not arguing with you about Mitsu products. I’m just sayin’ that they’re very good cars for the money, they get good ghastly mileage (especially their Lancer’s), they have great Warranty’ like Kia’s do, and they don’t break down often, they’re good and reliable like Kia’s are (start seein’ why I like them, like I dig Kia’s too?) and they just hook, lined and sinkered me with the “jet-fighter inspired” front end. I love it! That’s all. Oh, man, my son and I went ta Hasting’s Book Store today in Coeur d’ Alene. On the way back to the Lancer GTS I saw a new Kia Forte Koup in a stone grey color. Sharp as all get out, really nice looking car. No, like I say, the 2012 Kia Rio sedan and HB have my watchful eye but basically I’m gonna hold with what I have. I plan to read reviews on the ’12 Rio sedan/HB’s bought and see how they’re liking them. I’m not defensive I just notice on sites like Edmunds (I’ve seen you on there too Phil, eh?) people wantonly put Mitsubishi product down left and right and I develop a view to share the truth on the matter, that’s all.
Peace Bro. I do on occasionally post a remark on Edmunds but if you ever saw a negative remark by a (Phil) concerning any Mitsu or Suzu products, it wasn`t me. Hope the 2012 Kia Rio5 Hatchback arrives soon, going to put one in my drive, Pronto! Fully loaded with SX Trim, Power Moonroof etc. Don`t want the Navigation though, my $80 Mini Garmin works just fine.
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