It is all systems go for Kia’s ambitious growth program in Australia as new car sales continued to track upwards in May.
With 2,900 cars sold in May for a 3 per cent market share, Kia’s year-on-year growth continued at 22.8 per cent to keep the company on track for its target of being Australia’s fastest growing mainstream car company.
“Once again we have hit our numbers and continued the trend of solid growth that has been so pleasing this year,” Kia Motors Australia Chief Operating Officer Tony Barlow said.
“As has been the case in previous months we have kept what is an ambitious business plan on track and there is again a pleasing spread of sales growth across the model range.”
Kia’s top-selling model for May was the Cerato range with 820 new cars sold, a 41.8 per cent jump over 2011. It was closely followed by the award-winning all-new Rio with 710 sales, an increase of 17.6 per cent over last year’s outgoing model.
In the SUV market Kia’s large Sorento and compact Sportage again made significant gains in a very competitive segment with 31.7 and 32.7 per cent improvement respectively over last year. The stylish Optima jumped 114.2 per cent over 2011, boosted by the arrival of satellite navigation as standard in the Platinum model and the choice of the even more cost-effective Si model.
However, once again the most dominant Kia in the marketplace is the Grand Carnival people mover which continues to outsell its nearest competitors two-to-one with a 35 per cent market share.
