Kia Motors Corporation has announced its  global sales of 219,901 units in July 2020, a 3 percent decrease compared to the same period last year. The Sportage SUV is the Korean carmaker’s best-seller with 30,949 units sold, followed by the Seltos SUV with 28,241 units and the K3 (sold as Forte in some markets) with 22,555 units.

Sales in the home market maintained similar volume from last year’s 47,080 units, with 47,050 units in July 2020. The company says new models such as the all-new Sorento SUV released in March and the KS sedan (sold as the Optima in some markets) released last December contributed to the consistency in demand.

Sales outside of Korea down 3.7 percent
Compared to July 2019, sales in overseas markets last month decreased by 3.7 percent, to 172,851 units, affected by a sluggish economy resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Kia expects renewed sales momentum in the second half of the year thanks to a strong line-up of new models. These include the introduction of the Sonet compact SUV in India, which is to be revealed on August 7, and the new, fourth-generation Kia Carnival MPV (sold as Sedona in some markets).

Kia is particularly bullish on the made-in-India Sonet, for which it has targeted 100,000 unit sales in the domestic market and export of another 50,000 in the SUV’s first year of production.

Growth outlook
On July 23, Kia had announced a 27.8 percent year-on-year decrease in its global vehicle sales in Q2 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted auto demand around the world.

To fight the adverse market environment stemming from the pandemic, Kia Motors says it plans to guard profitability and market competitiveness with pioneering new models, while optimising production capacity to best cope with the recovery in market demand.

Furthermore, Kia will continue its risk management efforts to minimise the impacts of the COVID-19 to its businesses. The company is implementing various schemes to support customers, such as launching new models online.

Despite the tough business environment, Kia will continue to focus on realizing its ‘Plan S’ mid- to long-term strategy. Under Plan S, Kia aims to proactively introduce 11 battery electric vehicles and increase its operating profit margin to 6 percent by 2025.