Kia celebrates record half year and June figures

• Record June sales of 6,742 new cars
• Half-year sales of 37,178 surpass 2010 record
• Sportage, cee’d and Picanto lead the way

Kia set two new sales records at the end of June pointing towards continued growth across the UK new car market for the brand.

During June Kia dealers delivered 6,742 cars to customers – a new record for sales in June and almost 13 per cent up on last June’s total of 5,962. That brought Kia’s half-year sales to 37,178 up 11 per cent over 2012’s total of 33,396. It also surpassed Kia’s previous record half year performance in 2010 at the height of scrappage when the brand attracted 34,204 customers during the January to June period.

Kia’s performance was led by the Sportage compact SUV with 10,725 sales, followed by the all-new cee’d range, the ever-popular Picanto city car and the Rio hatchback. Sales were split almost evenly between retail and business customers.

That performance – in an overall market up 13 per cent in the month and 10 per cent year to date – gave Kia a market share in June of 3.14 per cent and a 3.2 per cent share for the first half of the year.

Paul Philpott, President and Chief Executive of Kia Motors (UK) Limited said: “June has been excellent for our dealers with very strong retail demand and I believe this shows that confidence is returning to the UK new car market. With our sales 12 per cent up over the same month last year, a first half performance that surpassed the height of scrappage and Sportage, cee’d and Picanto leading our sales charts we can see that private motorists are happy to buy if they feel they are getting a quality package that suits their needs at a fair price and with our outstanding styling and remarkable seven year warranty on top.

“We are quietly confident that with the continued appeal of the brand, the new Carens and just-launched pro_cee’d GT as well as the hard work of our dealers we can reach our stated target of a 70,000 sales this year,” he added.