Kia 30 years in the Netherlands: from laughingstock to number 1

Kia’s success in 2022 does not come out of the blue, because Kia has been breaking sales record after sales record for years. Nevertheless, the absolute number 1 position in the Dutch sales ranking is of course a wonderful reward for the work of the Koreans and the Dutch department of Kia.

“Good morning Europe”

That Dutch branch started cautiously thirty years ago, in 1993. “Good morning Europe!”, we read in the oldest Kia brochure we can find. The Kia of the 1990s continues: “A new product [met een ‘k’ ja, red.] introducing it to a part of the world is something you don’t just do. Certainly not if that product is a car, and even more so if that continent is Europe.”

The car in question was the Sephia, the very first Kia to land a tire in the Netherlands. Really early Sephias are easily identified by the 1986 version of the Kia logo, with a flag-like curved line and without the oval shape that would remain until the final restyling of the logo in 2021. That came later, probably from 1994.

September 1993: the first Kia, of course a Sephia, arrives in the Netherlands. Note the old logo.

The Sephia was a compact mid-sized car that initially only appeared as a sedan, but was later also available as a five-door hatchback. Kia emphatically marketed this car, and therefore itself, as a budget option. With the slogan “Kia drives a class richer” and a much-for-little approach, an attempt was made to lure the price-conscious European to the showroom.

Pride Wagon

In addition to the Sephia, the European also found the Sportage there from 1994, which at the time still had a spare wheel on its back and had four-wheel drive as standard. The model, at the time even more off-road vehicle than SUV, borrowed its ladder chassis and engines from Mazda. The drive technology of the Sephia also originally came from Mazda. The Mazda influence went even further with the brand’s third model, which came to the Netherlands in 1995; the Pride. That was just a Mazda 121 of the first generation, elsewhere also known as Ford Festiva. The compact model was basically almost ten years old when it was introduced in the Netherlands and would be continued by Kia until 2000. That sounds less likely than it is, because due to a competitive price and the introduction of a real station wagon version, Kia managed to sell quite a few. The Pride Wagon was yours for 20,000 guilders, or €9,000. Even then that was unprecedentedly little for so much space. Of course you had to make sacrifices for it: in 1999 we wrote “finish” between quotation marks.

Kia Pride Wagon (1999)

Self confidence

With a total of more than 5,000 Kias sold, the year 2000 was by far the best year for Kia to date, mainly thanks to the affordable Pride. Kia continued to work on the model range. Larger sedans like the Mentor and Magentis never really became popular here, but the Mitsubishi Space Wagon-based Joice did quite well. Introduced in 2000, the first Rio showed some self-confidence with its sharp headlights and striking half estate/half hatchback body. At the beginning of this century, it promptly became Kia’s most popular model.

ML for half the money

Another success number, but a bit more unexpected, was the Sorento. The first edition of that car appeared in 2002 and managed to attract more buyers in its first full year – 2003 – than the entire Kia brand did in 1998. Although the Sorento was still a traditional all-terrain executioner under the skin, it looked much less rudimentary than the four-wheel drive alternatives in its price segment. In short, it offered a Mercedes ML or BMW X5-like appearance, but for half the money. The Dutch listened to that!

Kia Sorento (2002)

Kia managed to maintain its early SUV success by launching an all-new and much more modern-looking version of the smaller Sportage in 2004. In 2005, it made an important contribution to another achievement in the Dutch Kia history: a first top 10 ranking.

Focus on Europe

In that year, an even more important contribution came from a car that is still extremely popular today: the Picanto. The first edition of that model also appeared in 2005 and was further proof that Kia had definitely found its way to maturity. With almost every new Kia that followed, this was increasingly emphasized. A much better and more confident Carens replaced the first version of that seven-seater in 2006, the new Rio looked sleeker and more mature and the boldest line came in 2007, when the Cee’d (then with an apostrophe) was launched.

The successor to the less memorable Cerato kept its reasonable price, but countered it with a much sleeker body, a modern and ‘finished’ interior and excellent equipment. With a choice of the three-door Pro_cee’d, a five-door Cee’d and the full Sporty Wagon station wagon, this first Cee’d was also better suited to the European market than ever. Not surprising, because the Cee’d was also the first Kia that was developed entirely for, by and in Europe. Hence the somewhat confusing name: CE is said to come from ‘European Community’ (in French?) and ‘ED’ stands for ‘European Design’.

Kia Cee’d (2006)

The apostrophe didn’t make life easier for AutoWeek editors, but the Cee’d was a resounding success. In Europe he was signed Kia’s number 1, in the Netherlands in 2008 he only had to tolerate the small Picanto. In order to convince even the last doubter, Kia introduced another unique asset with the Cee’d: a seven-year warranty. Unseen in 2006, still spacious in 2023.

2006 is also the year in which German designer Peter Schreyer took over the design helm at Kia. We would certainly not claim that design is everything when it comes to sales success, but Schreyer’s recognizable, confident designs certainly played a role in this. The top designer introduced the ‘Tiger Nose’ grille and provided Kia with cars such as the first Optima, the Rio launched in 2011 and the Sportage of 2010. Put that SUV next to its predecessor for comparison, and you’ll know what we mean.

EV precursor

That qualitative steps were also made at Kia, can be clearly read in the tests. Where for a long time a favorable result was explained with words such as ‘a good car for the money’, as the years progressed it increasingly became simply ‘a good car’. Compared to many European competitors, Kias often still have a relatively favorable price, but that has long since ceased to be the focus. You don’t have to, because the Kia of today is more of a leader than a follower. Take EVs, without a doubt the most important area of ​​development in the car world. With the Soul EV, Kia took its first cautious electric step in 2014, but the e-Niro of 2018 hit like a bomb. Apart from Tesla, this was, together with the technically identical Hyundai Kona, actually the first EV with which you could drive longer distances fairly carefree, and that in a car that turned out to be perfect for the Netherlands with its reasonable size and understated appearance.

Kia Soul EV, Kia’s first electric car

The EV lead in 2023 is somewhat less than a few years ago, but we still count Kia among the frontrunners. The EV6 is technically excellent, has impressive performance and is the start of a whole series of electric Kias with ‘EV’ in the name. Moreover, it is a car with which you can not only be seen, but even simply impress. That was slightly different with the Sephia.

Most popular Kia’s over the years

Kia Picanto

In (almost) thirty years of Kia in the Netherlands, the Kia Picanto has become the most popular model. That will remain the case for a while, because the distance to number 2 is great. In total, almost 140,000 were sold, a significant part of which last year. Even in 2022, the Picanto was the most popular Kia, just ahead of the Niro. That crossover has not been dragging on, especially since the launch of the electric version. The Rio is 3rd over all years in the Netherlands, and the Sportage is 4th. That SUV is often the most popular Kia worldwide, while the Ceed took the title in Europe in 2022. In the Netherlands, the Ceed sticks to place 5, which is not surprising. The top 10 most popular Kia’s in the Netherlands of all time mainly shows older models (except the Stonic) in places 6 to 10 and then drops rapidly in terms of absolute sales numbers. Nevertheless, we would like to mention the car that just falls short of the list with an 11th place: the EV6. With only one full year of sales behind us, this thick EV with a price tag of half a ton is already breathing down the neck of the Pride, which had five years to lure customers with a sales price of less than 10 grand. That actually tells the whole story.

Kia EV6