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Three SUV models carry 37% of Kia's record third-quarter sales
Kia sold a record 846,764 vehicles in the third quarter, up 7.8%, with three SUV models making up 37% of them. About 93% of the added volume came from abroad, while its fast-rising electric sales are concentrated in South Korea.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- Kia's nine-month sales reached 2,477,752 units, up 4.4% from a year earlier, after a record first half of 1,630,988.
- September global sales rose 5.1% to 281,984, a slower pace than the third quarter as a whole.
- Domestic EV sales reached 100,118 by Sept. 17, up 120%, making Kia the first automaker to pass 100,000 EVs in South Korea in a single year.
- In the UK, Kia ranks second with 76,850 sales from January through August, behind Volkswagen and just ahead of BMW's 76,074.
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Why it matters
- contradiction Analysts count hybrids as a growth pillar, yet Kia's US figures show hybrids mostly taking buyers from its other models, so more hybrid output alone will not lift US volume much.
- exposure One nameplate carries a large share of the record, so a slowdown in Sportage demand, in the UK above all, would hit Kia's totals directly.
- constraint Kia's home market grew only modestly while its EV sales there more than doubled, so the electric push in Korea appears to be moving buyers between Kia models more than adding new ones.
Kia's first half grew about 2.7%, measured against an implied 1,587,536 units for the same months last year (the 2,372,673 nine-month figure less last year's third-quarter 785,137) [20]. A 7.8% third quarter [2] is close to three times that pace, and Kia has grown year on year in every month this year except February [18]. Within the quarter, September's 5.1% [7] implies that July and August together grew about 9.3% [21].
Kia added 61,627 vehicles over last year's third quarter [19]. Overseas growth of 8.9% on 703,494 units [3][4] accounts for roughly 57,500 of them, and Korea's 2.2% for about 3,000 [22]. Kia's electric cars are selling at home: it sold 54,600 more EVs in Korea through Sept. 17 than in the same stretch last year [23]. The periods do not match, and Seoul Economic Daily's figures do not include Kia's domestic total for the year to date. Still, a home quarter that added about 3,000 vehicles of every kind suggests the new EVs are mostly replacing Kia's other models in Korea.
The three SUVs' 37% comes to 316,530 vehicles [24]. The Sportage sold 150,346 [5], about 18% of the quarter by itself [24], and in the UK the model accounts for about 40% of Kia's sales [15]. Kia holds second place in Britain, behind Volkswagen, by 776 units over BMW [14][25].
In the US, hybrids changed Kia's mix more than its total. A 65.7% rise to 24,948 hybrids in August [10] is about 9,900 extra cars, while the 0.9% rise to a record 83,793 [9] is about 750 [26]. Everything else Kia sold there fell from roughly 68,000 to 58,845, a drop of about 13% [26], and hybrids made up about 30% of the month [27]. Hyundai, with Genesis, fell 1.9% to 94,612, pulling the pair down 0.6% [12]. Their combined hybrid sales still hit a record 50,057 [13], almost exactly half of them Kias [28].
"The Telluride's sales growth is continuing," said Eric Watson, vice president of sales operations at Kia America [29]. He added that the full-scale launch of the all-electric EV3 would sustain the momentum through 2027 [30]. The Telluride was Kia's third-best US seller in August, at 12,693 [11].
Seoul Economic Daily cited analysts describing SUVs and hybrids as the "twin pillars" of Kia's growth [17]. I think they are half right. The SUVs added cars abroad, while in the US the hybrids mostly moved buyers from one Kia to another [26]. Third-quarter revenue will test the other half; Kia's last reported figure was a record 33.037 trillion won for the second quarter [8]. Revenue growth above the 7.8% unit gain [2] would mean the hybrid mix is raising what each sale brings in. Growth near 7.8% would mean volume carried the quarter, and growth below it would mean the record cars sold for less apiece. The first outcome would prove this view wrong, since a hybrid that replaces another Kia still adds revenue if it sells for more.
What to watch
- Kia's October global sales: growth near September's 5.1% would leave the third quarter's 7.8% resting on a strong July and August.
- Kia's US hybrid and non-hybrid sales for September and October, to see whether the rest of the range keeps shrinking as hybrids grow.
- The date of the EV3's full-scale US launch, the model Kia America is counting on to sustain growth through 2027.