UK SALES JANUARY - KIA - The Korean giant posts an all time record for the month.

• Record January sales of 7,661
• Sportage returns to Top Ten sellers
• Kia rank eighth overall

Continuing high customer demand and a new year SUV special sales event helped Kia set a new all-time January sales record of 7,661 – taking the brand to eighth in the UK new car sales charts.

With 3,063 Sportage models delivered to customers during the month Kia enjoyed its best-ever start to a new year and the must-have SUV re-entered the SMMT’s Top Ten best-seller charts. 

The January perform captured a 4.39 per cent share of the Januance was 51 per cent up on January in 2016 – itself one of Kia’s best-ever January numbers. In January 2016 Kia delivered 5,066 new cars to customers for a 2.99 per cent market share.

Paul Philpott, Kia Motors (UK) Limited President and Chief Executive said: “This is a stunning performance by our dealers and reflects the continuing confidence and desire amongst our amazing growing family of customers.

“Our special SUV event saw demand for all our multi-purpose models such as Sportage, Sorento, Niro and Soul increase and this has given us a very positive start to 2017. We still expect some challenges this year – not least when the VED regulations change in April, but this level of demand shows our customers recognise the style, quality and affordability that Kia represents,” he added.

Ford gets its employee's to place incorrect parts into various vehicles to see how easy they are to locate via the new systems in place.

• “Gremlin Tests”  help realise Ford’s commitment to quality, alongside industry-first digital photo tech that records, checks and traces all vehicle parts at mega-plant in Valencia, Spain
• Vision System takes more than one billion photographs every 14 days – comparable to the number of photographs uploaded to Instagram in Europe

Ford employees are tasked with secretly planting wrong and faulty parts onto the assembly line, including incomplete steering wheels and faulty engine components, as part of a process to ensure all new vehicles built at the plant in Valencia meet Ford’s rigorous quality standards.

Xabier Garciandia’s working day involves literally trying to put a spanner into the works of one of the world’s most advanced auto plants – by making sure wrong parts and faulty components are secretly placed on the assembly line.

Ford’s industry-first Vision System photographs, checks and tracks every single part of each of the 400,000 cars and vans assembled, and 330,000 engines built at the Ford Valencia plant each year.  “Gremlin Tests” are an innovative way of ensuring that each process is working correctly.

“The Vision System is crucial to ensuring every single part of each vehicle is just right,” said Garciandia, technical specialist, Valencia Engine Vision System, Ford of Europe. “The ‘Gremlin Test’ means we can ensure the system is working perfectly.  It is a game with a very serious point; we are making them harder to spot all the time.”

Ford produces more Ford models at the state-of-the-art Ford mega-plant in Valencia than anywhere else in Europe, including Kuga, Kuga Vignale, Mondeo, Mondeo Vignale, Galaxy, S-MAX and Transit Connect and Tourneo Connect.  Ford’s 2.0-litre and 2.3-litre Ecoboost engines are also built at the plant.

The Vision System captures more than a billion photos every 14 days, comparable to the number of photos uploaded to Instagram in Europe. * This also helps to generate a composite image – consisting of 3,150 digital photographs – that highlights any discrepancies to engineers on the spot.

Faulty engine parts, wrong steering wheels, and even incorrect dashboards have been sent down the line, with the “Gremlin Test” now extended to all 34 stages of assembly.

“The way in which we all use digital cameras has totally changed the way we record our daily way of life, and is now transforming the way we build engines and cars,” said Garciandia. “But we also have to test the tests, and we are doing this in a way that is very simple, but which we believe is unique in the auto industry.”

Ford has introduced a range of rigorous and in some instances unusual quality processes at the plant where a new vehicle rolls off the production line every 40sec.

These include:

• Ultra-sensitive microphones used to register engine connectors
• “Engine listeners”ensure each new Ford Focus RS is running flawlessly
• Ostrich feathers that are used to dust models before painting to enhance paint quality
• An industry-first digital camera system that identifies vehicle bodyshell paint defects
• Vehicle audio testing that reflects customer use of audio streamed via Bluetooth
• A virtual rolling road test to evaluate advanced driver technologies

UK SALES APRIL - Ford dominates again, with the lead in a large number of sectors from cars to commercial.

Ford was the UK market leader in total vehicle, car and commercial vehicle (CV) sales in April. Ford CV sales comfortably outpacing CV market sales growth. 

According to the official sales figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT):

April 2016 highlights:

• Ford total vehicle sales 31,695 and a sales share of 14.3 per cent, 4.8 percentage points ahead of nearest rival
• Fiesta is UK best-seller, Transit Custom leads CV sales
• Ford has five models in the UK top 20 – Fiesta (1st), Focus (3rd), Transit Custom (9th), Kuga (15th) and Transit (19th)
• Ford Fiesta, C-MAX, Galaxy, Fiesta Van, Transit Custom, Transit and Ranger lead their respective segments

Andy Barratt, Ford of Britain chairman and managing director, said:  "We continue to consolidate and extend our long-standing UK market leadership through continued investment in exciting products and industry-leading technologies, delivered through the strongest UK dealer network. 

Five vehicles in the UK top 20 and seven Ford vehicles leading their segments firmly underline the success of our exciting model range.

“SUV segments show significant growth and our EcoSport and Kuga models have been enjoying healthy sales growth, and this summer we see the new Ford Edge, our flagship SUV, arriving in dealerships. New product launches continue with the Fiesta ST200, the most powerful production Fiesta ever, and the S-MAX Vignale arriving in the coming months.”

The official figures released by the SMMT today show that total car sales in April were up 2.0 per cent to 189,505 units, compared with April 2015. Ford vehicle sales were 31,695, 10,567 registrations ahead of its nearest rival.

Ford extends its lead in retail car sales, which most accurately reflect the preferences of private buyers.  For April, Ford is 3.6 percentage points of retail car sales share ahead of its nearest rival and for the year to date, the lead is 4.6 percentage points.

The Ford Fiesta remains the UK’s best-seller with 7,913 registrations in April, 2,268 sales and 1.2 percentage points of share ahead of its nearest rival. The broad customer appeal of Ford’s car range is demonstrated by Fiesta, B-MAX, Focus, C-MAX, Kuga, Mustang and Galaxy all occupying top three places in their respective market segments in April.

UK light commercial vehicle sales in April were up 11.8 per cent at 27,880 compared with April 2015.  Ford light and medium commercials sales were 8,219, up from 6,791 compared with April 2015, corresponding to a 14.3 per cent increase compared with April 2015.

The full availability of Ford’s extended CV family has helped deliver these significant increases in sales and share.  Fiesta Van, Transit Courier, Transit Connect, Transit Custom, Transit and Ranger all placed in the top three in their respective market segments.

WORLDWIDE SALES - VOLVO - After 88 years, the brand continues to break all sales records.

Volvo Cars reports best sales month in its 88-year history and 26.0 per cent growth

• Record sales for a single month – 49,055 cars in November                                          
• Strong sales increases in all regions globally
• All-new Volvo S90 premium sedan soon to be unveiled

Volvo Cars posted a 26.0 per cent increase in retail sales for the month of November, selling 49,055 cars globally which represents a new all-time high result for a single month. In the medium term, Volvo Cars is targeting annual sales of 800,000 cars globally following a complete renewal of its product line-up in the next four years.

The global success for the Volvo XC90 is paving the way for the all-new Volvo S90 premium sedan – the second car to be based on Volvo’s in-house developed SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) technology. The Volvo S90 will be unveiled at an event in Gothenburg on December 2nd.

For the month of November, the United States reported 6,903 retail sales, up 90.5 per cent versus the same month last year. Sales were boosted by strong demand for the XC90 and XC60 models which were the best-selling Volvos in the US for the month. Year-to-date sales in the US market are now up 18.0 per cent.

Retail sales in Europe as a whole were up by 23.9 per cent to a total of 26,646 cars. Sweden reported a market share of 24.3 per cent while also the Netherlands and Germany were growth drivers in Europe with substantial sales increases. The V40 and XC60 were the best-selling Volvo models in Europe while growth was driven mainly by the XC90 model.

Sales in China amounted to 8,045 cars in November, up 15.8 per cent versus the same month last year. The locally produced Volvo XC60 and S60L are the best-selling Volvo models on the market.

Retail sales status (deliveries to end customers) for Volvo Car Group is as follows:

	November				January   – November
	2014	2015	Change		2014	2015	Change
China	6 946	8 045	15,8%		73 071	71 766	-1,8%
USA	3 623	6 903	90,5%		51 451	60 706	18,0%
Sweden	5 718	8 164	42,8%		55 092	62 119	12,8%
Western Europe	15 783	18 482	17,1%		163 283	173 598	6,3%
Other markets	6 871	7 461	8,6%		75 924	72 813	-4,1%
TOTAL	38 941	49 055	26,0%		418 821	441 002	5,3%