UK SALES APRIL - KIA - The brand remained strong although it still dropped, but by less than half the market average.

• Kia delivers 6,291 vehicles in April
• Kia in Top Ten brands for month and year
• Market down almost 20 per cent but Kia fall held to 8 per cent 

In a market down by almost 20 per cent during April demand from Kia customers allowed the brand to stay strong – seeing only an eight per cent fall compared to 2016.

With the brand’s popular Picanto model – its second biggest seller – in run-out ahead of the launch of the all-new model on 1 May, demand for Sportage, cee’d and the all-new Rio allowed Kia to deliver 6,291 vehicles to customers during the month – making Kia the ninth best-selling brand in the market.

And with sales for the year reaching 35,996 Kia also held ninth place in the best-selling list to the end of April. Although the April market fell dramatically Kia is still 16 per cent ahead of the 2016 performance for the year to date.

Paul Philpott, President and Chief Executive of Kia Motors (UK) Limited commented: “The vehicle excise duty changes coming into effect at the start of April was always going to have an effect on the month and because our ever-popular Picanto model was in run-out ahead of the all new model launched just this week, we expected our performance to drop off – but I am very pleased that demand for our other excellent vehicles remained strong amongst both retail and business customers.

“Initial response to the all-new Picanto is extremely positive and exciting and I expect our performance to come back strongly in the months ahead – especially as we have two other all-new models to launch this year. I was pleased to see that our year-to-date performance, up 16 per cent, is well ahead of the overall market’s one per cent improvement.

“And I am absolutely delighted that we are ninth in the best seller lists for both April and the year-to-date,” he commented.