New Kia Sportage arriving this month

A giant delivery from South Korea, including at least 1000 examples of new Kia Sportage, could take some of the showroom pressure off Kia this month.

Kia buyers have been among the hardest hit by production delays through 2021 and there is no sign of significant improvement before the middle of next year.

But strong initial supplies of the new Sportage, the company’s hottest new showroom arrival, is intended to fill part of the pipeline.

“In the initial stages we will have good stocks of Sportage,” Kia Motors Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith told carsales.

“We are launching this month and we’ll probably have a little over 1000 cars. We’re just waiting for the boats.

“For one of our SUVs, having 1000 cars is pretty good. The pipeline for the Sportage is OK for the next month or so. But I still hope they go as quickly as possible.”

Despite the good news on Sportage, there is no end in sight to the waiting lists for most Kia models.

Meredith reports that stock is reasonable for models at the bottom of the company’s range, but deliveries are tighter for family SUVs and worst for fully-loaded flagship models.

“I think, specifically, it comes down to how many computer chips are in the cars,” he says.

“You can buy a Picanto, a Rio, a Cerato or a Stonic. They are OK, across the range.

“At the top end, Seltos and Sorento and Carnival are a wait of six-plus months. And it’s probably been like that for six months.

“I think, specifically, it comes down to how many computer chips are in the cars. You get the complexity with electric tailgates, sliding side doors and all the rest, and that’s where all the chips go. It’s dozens of chips in some models.”

Meredith says Kia would like to have more information on delivery times but cannot assist customers at the moment.

“The pipeline is very hard to read and it does change very, very quickly. Getting cars from Korea is very difficult because of the chip problems.

“It’s as simple as that and as complex as that. We want to get as many cars into the country as we can. Some months are better than others.”

Kia’s local chief said he has sympathy for buyers waiting long periods for their cars, just as Toyota Australia did today.

“We understand why people have chosen our cars and we would like to help. We just haven’t got the facility to look that far up the pipeline, with the volatility in production.”

Kia is working to an easing of delays in the first quarter of 2022, with an emphasis on the popular Seltos, Carnival and Sorento, but Meredith admits it could take longer.

Meredith also admits that Kia’s rapid sales growth in Australia has been impacted by the shortfall in supply, even though it is still likely to hit a new sales record.

“We’ll probably do about 68,000 cars this year. That will be our best year. Our record is 61,503 in 2019,” he said.

“If we could get the cars we would probably be able to sell something in the early-to-mid 70,000s. We always want to be consistent and to continue on the upward trajectory.”