Kia's Michael Sprague noted the company is growing sales in the U.S. despite not having a pickup truck in its line-up.
Despite a dramatic surge in truck sales due to lower fuel prices and the revival of Japanese brands, Kia has managed to grow sales – despite not having a truck – and is looking forward to more success in the future.
Michael Sprague, Kia Motor Sales chief operating officer, said this week that the South Korean brand continues to expand its sales despite the challenges it faces.
Kia sales increased by while 22% during September and are up 7% so far this year while sales in the U.S. market, Sprague noted during a briefing as the South Korean automaker rolled out 2016 Kia Optima, midsized sedan that will replace one of most important models.
After recording its best September sales in history last month, a year of record sales when final figures for 2015 are entered in the books.
“We still consider ourselves a challenger brand,” said Sprague, even though it has now emerged as eighth largest brand in the U.S. after the likes of Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, Nissan, Jeep and its Hyundai, its Korean sibling.
Sprague noted that Kia despite the fact it has produced a number of hit vehicles in recent years, is still fighting negative perceptions left over from the brand’s early history. But it is making headway.
In 2001, finished dead last in J.D. Power’s influential Initial Quality Survey, Sprague noted. In this year’s IQS survey, Kia placed second behind Porsche. Meanwhile, seven of the brands that placed ahead of Kia in 2001 have disappeared from the U.S. market.
Kia also has raised its visibility with clever advertising placed in prominent places.
(Kia making splash with 2017 Sportage. For more, Click Here.)
Sprague confirmed that Kia has signed on to advertise on the Super Bowl for the seventh year in a row. The Super Bowl spot next year will probably feature the new 2016 Kia Optima, which will be well into its launch by the time the next Super Bowl rolls around.
The revamped 2016 Kia Optima started down the assembly line at the Kia plant in West Point, Georgia, on Sept. 28, and finished models are scheduled to reach dealers in the Southeast by the end of October.
The 2016 Optima will reach other dealers across the U.S. over the next couple of months, Sprague said.
Kia vehicles such as Kia Soul and Kia Sorento continue to win plaudits from the press and other organizations that evaluate new cars.
Kia also plans to open a new assembly plant in Monterrey, Mexico next year. Enabling to supply additional vehicles to the U.S. and to sell vehicles in Mexico for the first time ever. Only companies that build cars in Mexico can sell vehicles in Mexico.
(Click Here for details about Tesla’s new autopilot program.)
The Mexican plant will eventually have the capacity to build as many as 300,000 vehicles in the future.
Kia’s designs are also getting noticed.
Kia hired the gifted Peter Schreyer from Audi in 2006 and he has helped bring a new flair to Kia’s entire vehicle line, Sprague said.
Schreyer said in a video supplied by Kia that automotive design is complicated effort because its influenced by art, architecture, fashion, new technology and even music. But at the same time, the whole vehicle still has to be greater sum of the individual elements.
(To see more about Volvo’s plans to introduce EVs across its line-up, Click Here.)
“Kia’s cars have to be passionately designed and executed with careful craftsmanship that exceed expectations,” he added.