New Kia Sportage to be top-five player

Kia Australia says product will take precedence over price, and that a steady arrival of new and improved models will improve its position on the local sales board.

Speaking at the launch of the all-new Sportage medium SUV last week, Kia Motors Australia COO Damien Meredith said he expects the Korean brand will sell more than 39,000 vehicles Down Under this year.

“Last year was a pretty successful year for Kia [in Australia] -- we did 33,700 plus and our market share was 2.9 per cent,” said Meredith.

“As importantly, our JD Power level went from 11th to fourth in terms of aftersales CSI [customer service index]… and our dealer satisfaction lifted from 26th position to equal 12th. However, it’s now historical data and we have to look forward rather than looking back.

“This year we expect to do 39,000 [sales]; that’s a lift of 15.6 per cent,” he continued. “In volume terms, that is less than the extra cars we sold in 2015, so we’re relatively confident that lift will be gained by new entries, obviously Sportage, Picanto and a pretty major uplift in regards to Cerato.”

The new Sportage is available from this month (January), with the sub-light Picanto arriving in April from $14,990 drive-away. The heavily revised Cerato is expected in local showrooms early in the second-half of the year.

“We will continue to focus on product, rather than price,” Meredith emphasised.

“We believe with the quality of the product we’ve got we can continue on that pathway. We’ll also focus on the localisation aspect of our vehicles, and our perceived value.

“Like all manufacturers and importers we have to get better at what we do, and with our customer satisfaction, we have to remain competitive and keep a close eye on what’s happening in the marketplace because it can change very quickly.”

Kia’s fortunes improved noticeably in 2015 with the arrival of the new Carnival people-mover, Sorento seven-seat SUV and Optima mid-size sedan.

The popular medium SUV segment, in which the Sportage competes, attracted 144,937 local buyers last year, meaning Kia’s new arrival will no doubt bolster its position on the sales ladder.

“In the medium SUV segment, we’re just outside of the top five,” explained Kia Australia’s general manager of marketing, Manuel Tyras. “With the arrival of the new Sportage we believe we can knock on that door.”

In 2015 Kia finished in seventh place in the medium SUV segment. Its aged third-generation Sportage found just 7596 customers -- well behind first-placegetter, the Mazda CX-5 (25,126 units), so to break into the top five its successor will need to find more than 10,000 buyers.

2015 Medium SUV sales (under $60,000):
1. Mazda CX-5 – 25,126
2. Toyota RAV4 – 18,435
3. Nissan X-TRAIL – 17,971
4. Subaru Forester – 12,029
5. Mitsubishi Outlander – 10,884
6. Honda CR-V – 8608
7. Kia Sportage – 7596