Kia is smashing its sales records once again. In October, it beat its own record for sales in that month by a huge 16%. At the same time, nearly every model it sells had significant growth. Electric and electrified sales were up nearly one-third, with three familiar names having their best October ever.
Kia
Kia is a South Korean automaker headquartered in Seoul. It was originally founded in 1944 as a bicycle manufacturer which later built small motorcycles, and Mazda-licensed trucks and cars. After building an assembly plant in th early 70s, the company also produced the Bisa range of cars until 1981 before coming to a half due to the political situation at the time. Production kicked off again in 1986 in partnership with Ford, and in 1992 the company started sellling cars in North America. Today it is the second-largest automaker in South Korea, right behind Hyundai.
- Founded
- June 9, 1944 (as Kyungsung Precision Industry)
- Founder
- Kim Cheol-ho
- Headquarters
- Seoul, South Korea
- Owned By
- Hyundai Motor Group
- Current CEO
- Ho Sung Song
Sportage Remains Kia’s Best-Seller
Once again, Kia’s best-seller was the Sportage crossover, which sold 13,681 copies. Up 23.8 percent from October 2023. The larger Sorento saw sales climb 23% to 7,841, and despite Kia selling 1,941 units of its new EV9 electric three-row SUV, sales of the gas-powered Telluride climbed 14% to 9,964 showing that the EV wasn’t siphoning buyers away from Kia’s existing products.
The redesigned Kia Carnival, including the first Carnival Hybrid, started arriving at dealers last month. That saw sales climb to 4,909, up 40 percent from the same month last year.
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“A number of Kia’s electrified models and SUVs realized double-digit sales increases, propelling Kia to our best October sales performance in company history.”
– Eric Watson, Vice President of Sales Operations, Kia America.
Kia Reports 70 Percent Growth In EV Sales
EV6 and EV9 sales combined totaled 3,763, helping lead Kia’s electrified model sales. Total EV sales were up 70%, with plug-in hybrid sales – including the Niro, Sportage, and Sorento PHEVs – up 65%.
Two of Kia’s smallest didn’t fare as well with buyers. The Kia Niro, which offers plug-in, hybrid, and fully electric powertrains, saw sales drop 35 percent to 1,546. The slightly larger Seltos, which is only offered with gas engines, saw sales down 2% to 4,622, despite its still-attractive pricing for 2025.
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In its first month on the market, the all-new Kia K4 saw 7,901 sales. That’s less than the Forte it replaces managed to sell in October of 2023, but the K4 has just entered production, meaning that dealers didn’t have full availability of the compact sedan. Kia has been on a hot sales streak this year. The highlight of that was in August when Kia saw its best sales month in the company’s history. That month, sales hit 75,217 versus 72,147 in 2023. October’s total was 68,908.
