Kia aims to double sales by 2015

KIA is aiming towards 55,000 annual sales in Australia by 2015 on the back of redesigned models, new entrants and increased supplies of its volume sellers.

Already on track to hit a record 25,000 units this year, and with 30,000-plus sales forecast for 2012, Kia Motors Australia chief operating officer Tony Barlow said the company had entered “a new league” and was now playing “at the big end of town” with vehicles that tick all the right boxes for design, quality, safety and desirability.

Although sister brand Hyundai is regarded as a competitor, Kia is focusing on brands such as Suzuki, Honda, Subaru and Volkswagen from which to steal sales and cement a top-10 spot.

Although it broke into the top 10 earlier this year, partly as a result of supply shortages experienced by rivals as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Kia is currently sitting 11th on the new-vehicle sales ladder, with 14,701 sales to the end of July (up 3.1 per cent).

It is just 204 units clear of Suzuki, and, looking up the table, remains some distance behind more entrenched top-10 players in Honda (currently 10th on 19,610 units YTD), Subaru (ninth on 21,667) and Volkswagen (eighth on 23,933) before reaching the full-line players in Mitsubishi, Nissan, Hyundai, Mazda, Ford, Holden and market leader Toyota.

Left: Kia Motors Australia chief operating officer Tony Barlow. Below (in order): Kia Sorento, Sportage, Picanto and Optima.

Mr Barlow said the long-term goal was to match sister company Hyundai’s current numbers in this country – which hit a record 80,000 units last year.

“From our point of view there are plenty of other vehicles (besides Hyundai) out in the market that we want to conquest,” Mr Barlow told GoAuto at the Australian launch of the all-new UB-series Rio in Adelaide this week.

“Certainly Hyundai is a competitor to us in the marketplace, but we don’t fix our sights on them.

“If we want to work up the rankings we have brands like Subaru and Volkswagen and Suzuki that sit above us … so obviously if we are going to climb up the ladder we have to take sales away from those (brand) fields, and with models like the new Rio.

“It’s all about conquest.”

Central to Kia’s success has been the design revolution under ex-Audi stylist Peter Schreyer. This kicked off with the second-generation Sorento in 2009 and has gathered pace with last year’s third-generation Sportage and the TF-series Optima launched earlier this year.

As GoAuto has reported, supply shortages of key models such as the Sportage CRDi diesel and Optima have curbed its sales growth Down Under, despite strong demand here and positive indicators such as a claimed 50 per cent increase in its customer appeal index since 2010.

“This year we are aiming for 25,000, and next year we will push beyond 30,000 on the back of the new Rio, as well as the couple of other models that we expect to get better supply of next year,” Mr Barlow said.

“(The Sportage and Optima) are cars that we have had very heavy competition from other Kia subsidiaries around the world to get our fair share of allocation, so we will keep working on that.

“(But) the Rio will be the key model for us next year – it will push us most of the way through the year.”

Dwindling stocks of the ageing JB-series Rio that has been in run-out for some time has pushed sales of the light car down 28 per cent so far in 2011. However, the new five-door hatchback will turn things around when it reaches showrooms next month, with the range to be bolstered early next year by sedan and three-door hatch body styles.

Increased supplies of the Sportage and Optima, with perhaps cheaper variants of the latter to give Kia broader ammunition against the top-selling Toyota Camry and Ford Mondeo in the mid-sizer class, are expected to further propel Kia along over the next 18 months.

Beyond that, the long-awaited Picanto city car, new-generation YD Cerato, the Mk2 Soul and redesigned Rondo and Carnival will help keep the momentum moving upwards.

“With every new model people’s perceptions of the Kia brand are changing,” Mr Barlow said.

“We have a specific challenge in Australia to move our sales volumes up. We would like to grow our brand to the size where Hyundai are at the moment, and that may take a number of years to achieve.

“But certainly we get a lot of support for those aspirations from head office.”