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USA: Kia Announces Record High Sales In 2012
Kia Motors America -KMA recently announced that they had passed their best ever total for full year sales after just 11 months, but now the final numbers are in.
The new record sales number, set during 2012, came in at 557,599 (including 39,178 in December) units, which is a 14.9% increase over 2011.
The incredible growth of Kia in the US during the past five years has helped the company achieve 18 straight years of increased market share.
The sales leader for KMA continued to be the US-built Optima, which moved 12,008 units in December alone. That number helped make the Optima the first vehicle in the Kia lineup to crack the 150,000 annual sales mark.
When you add the Sorento CUV – another vehicle built at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) – US-built vehicles accounted for more than 40% of the units sold during last year’s record-breaking sales run.
Byung Mo Ahn, group president and CEO of KMA and KMMG, said that 2012 was a banner year for the company, as they hit a number of major markers, including surpassing 500,000 units for the first time, chalking up 18 straight years of market share increases, and selling the four millionth Kia vehicle in the US.
He went on to say that the company was committed to delivering new levels of design, sophistication, premium amenities, and cutting-edge technology, all at an affordable price.
Those improvements will be seen in every new Kia model, including the seven all-new or redesigned vehicles that will be released 2013.
Kia’s Sales Figures In December 2012
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 3, 2013 /CNW/ – Kia Canada Inc. concluded 2012 with a record year, reporting 77,800 sales nationally, establishing a record for the 13 year-old company in Canada. In addition, the month of December elevated the brand to an industry-leading 48 months of consecutive sales growth, reporting a total of 3,960 vehicles and a 15.8 per cent increase from a year previously. Kia Canada completed 2012 out-pacing industry performance with a 19.5 per cent increase versus 2011 results.
Kia posted a record December in 2012.
What they should be worried about is their first monthly decline in two years.
Other parts of the world have more interest in the Sportage. It is one of Kia’s top 5 best-selling vehicles globally. Dealers don’t make any money on the Sportage, another good reason for its sales decline. Try comparing CX-5 sales to Sorento sales. Try comparing CX-5 global sales to Sportage global sales. Because there is better incentive on selling Sorentos, dealers will take a prospective Sportage customer, and sell them a Sorento. Plus, that allows more Sportages to be allocated to parts of the world that the Sportage is in higher demand. Kia knows what they are doing, and if they needed your help, you would be working for them.
How ironic….the US sales figures in this post are headlined by a picture of a Kia vehicle not even sold in the US.
good point Greg, come on Himi you can do better than that.:-)
i have been saying they need 2nd kia plant for years (or 3rd h/k plant) but will that help if all they’re going to do is build more optima/sonata, sf/sorento, elantra/forte, etc. i own 2011 sportage sx orange, i wanted that car so bad and freaking love that car and it bothers me to see the sale go down every month/year. they’ll refresh it next year but why even bother importing such a low seller? how come rav4, crv, etc sell but sportage and tucson dont? i dont get it. unfortunate. ppl r missing out . the car is amazing not to mention acceleration.
so what happened with their sales? did they not give out incentives or had shortage in december? i dont get it, hate to see the 28 month streak come to an end at the most important month of the year. anybody konw what happend?
My dealer says they still can’t get any Sportages. They don’t even have a single Sportage on the lot. They are supposed to be getting two by the end of this week. When they do get Sportages in, half the time they sell them before they are even off the truck. It is a hard car to find. Same with the Rio SX…can’t get them! Hyundai and Kia realize they have limited production capacity, but the thing is, if they are going to be going upmarket, as they say they are – their sales will drop anyway. Going upmarket means fewer sales, but more profit per sale. Why invest in increasing production capacity? Instead, I think they are more interested in investing in quality control. If they are moving upmarket, that’s what they need to focus on. NOT increasing capacity. The dealer speculates sales were slow in December due to consumers taking caution over the “fiscal cliff”. Showroom traffic has picked up in the first week of January.
Still need more production in the USA. Their market share will not go up until they have more units. As far as going upmarket, won’t happen. 60 percent of the car buying market in the U.S. have not even heard of Kia. That is fact from Michael Sprague, Kia’s VP/Marketing.
They could build another plant in the U.S. and make sportages, rios, and souls on the same line. Plus its cheaper to build them here.
intresting info. so why or how is it that increasing production decrease quality? quality is great now so all you ahve to do is build another plant and keep doing the same thing. hire more poepel and produce more cars. they need that extra plant for new forte, new soul, sportage/tucson. more expensive/low volume cars can come from elsehwhere e.g. genesis, cadenza, etc. i dont understand chariman chung’s argument of focusing on quality bs, i think he doesn’t want to take a risk of building another plant in usa when they got one in china. they need one in usa. increase market share and sales. the demand is there so why not build more if u gonna redesign and ppl are going to want it more and more each year. they will not keep up and they will lose not because cars are crap but dont have any to sell and that is so stupid and so unfortunate. boggles my mind thats what they’re thinking. yes cheaper to build here as well, no shipping cost, etc. good for everyone.b uild the 3rd plant, period.
also new hcd13 concept car pic is out today, looks like they’ll go ahead with genesis 4dr coupe in 2 eyars, that also means kia GT will be realized along with gen coupe based 2dr, 4dr coupe, and quoris, etc. regardless of that they need one more plant, going upmarket could lower sales but not at the rate things are moving. all the cars are getting expensive (avg transaction over 30k now) but it is still selling like crazy. the competitions are selling well so why not sell more and make even more profit. in this game volume, # is the key, build/sell more. u dont make profit by making few expensive cars, look at porsche, jag, etc. they have no choice but to expand line ups and sell more vehicles. the end.
Well lack of marketing for rio, sportage, and forte. Plus the actual name of the car does not connect with the american audience. The Rio is a nice name. It could have been called other cute names as well. Lack of marketing fir the rio and spotage is hurting sales. The forte is competing against stalwarts like the Civic and Corolla. Kia needs to figure out how to differentiate itself fron the blue chip brands. In the end it is all about branding backed up with a quality product.
Kia needs to learn from business titans like samsung, Apple, and toyota to find out how to make a mass product that becomes desirable.
Personally I think trying to move Kia upmarket is a mistake, but that’s what they said they are going to do. I’ll believe it when I see it.
the Gwangju plant that builds the Soul, Rondo and Sportage is under expansion to increase capacity by I about 140,000 units a year. I think the work was started in October, so it maybe ready by now, so that should help for these models.
whabt about czech plants? why dont they funnel more cars from europe to usa if the situation there is still bad? either their supply line is messed up which i highly doubt or they just dont feel like building one for no reason. i’m not convinced that focusing on quality is the reason right now. sad to see lost opportunities
There is already a 6 month wait for a Sportage in Europe, so that is NOT an option. Besides, the Czech plant doesn’t build either the 2.4L engine or the 2.0L turbo engine for US consumption.
I did a check and it is 120,000 increase not a 140,000 from an original 500,000 to 620,000 capacity. Massive changes do not happen overnight when you get caught off guard with very high demand for a vehicle it can take some time to adjust, maybe due to the very high demand of the Soul, they had to cut back on Sportage production to supply.
This new article from about 13 months ago it stated: “despite strong demand for affordable, quality models, Kia and Hyundai are struggling to produce enough cars because of their stretched manufacturing capacity. Analysts say this could also slow their volume growth next year”
And still their volume increase for 2012, its faster to expand an existing plant. To build new plants takes many years before its ready for production.
So its about a bottleneck in supply greg? Interesting. They better resolve it quick, Kia that is. If the demand is there as you have been saying, then Hyundai needs to expand quickly. Either in the southern US, China, or South Kore.
We all want to see Kia succeed. I agree with Greg about going upscale, that’s going be hard sell imho. You see when VW tried that here in the USA, nobody wanted their cars. 2013 will probably see a decline in market share. Both plants in the USA are maxed out. Hundreds of unused acres on their sites are going unused. Build I say, lol.
Yeah, I’m not sure about Alabama, but in Georgia they have 2,200 acres! They could build SIX plants on that much land! lol