In car land, almost everything is at the moment at the moment, but we still get good news from Kia. Despite everything, the first quarter of 2020 turned out to be very successful with the Koreans, at least in a relative sense.
Kia achieved a European market share of 3.7 percent in the past quarter, compared to 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019. This is the largest share so far, and that is also the case in the Netherlands. In our country, Kia’s contribution grew to 7.6 percent, with the Picanto and the Niro being the big hits. Niro sales increased by a whopping 46.5 percent compared to last year and the model even made it to number one in the Netherlands in February.
That all sounds nice, but the attentive reader will notice that so far it is not about absolute numbers. Unfortunately, the crisis is also not spared Kia and total sales fell by 14.5 percent despite all happy messages. The brand therefore performed relatively well, amidst competitors who, without exception, also receive major blows from the corona crisis.
However, more electrified models have actually been sold at Kia. The number of cars sold with some electrification on board increased by 20.8 percent to 21,340 units. Like Hyundai, Kia deliberately focuses on as many different drive types as possible and has mild hybrids, regular hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars.