Despite U.S.'s Gloomy Market, Kia Projects Further Gains
By Michelle Krebs February 11, 2009By Bill Visnic
CHICAGO -- In the disastrous sales year that 2008 turned out to be, gains of any kind were few and far between. Almost no automakers had volume gains in a market that lost some 2.8 million units. Kia Motors America was one of a handful of companies to post a market-share gain -- and just may improve on that performance this year.
Last year marked Kia's 14th consecutive year of market-share gain in the U.S. And Thomas Loveless, vice president-sales, Kia Motors America, said Kia actually is accelerating despite what turned out to be a dreadful January for the industry: Kia last month won 3.4 percent of the market -- the first time in the company's history, said Loveless, that Kia has ever exceeded 3 percent market share in the U.S.
Loveless told AutoObserver in an interview at the Chicago auto show here that Kia expects a market of maybe 11 million units in 2009. "I think you'll see this year manifest itself like the back half of last year."
Kia's 11-million-unit projection is optimistic compared with many industry estimates, but still is a far cry from what could be judged a robust number. No matter -- Kia has two important new models coming this year and Loveless says conditions have been favoring Kia's positioning.
"The market is moving to us -- and I think we're moving to it as well," Loveless said. "Value is the new 'cool.'"
The "value" component -- the backbone of Kia's brand -- will be reinforced with the long-awaited launch of the edgy Soul subcompact, a non-U.S.-market cult favorite whose retail sales begin next month, and the completely new Forte compact, the car unveiled here that replaces Kia's best-selling model, the Spectra.
The Forte goes on sale in June. Kia isn't yet talking pricing, but the Honda Civic- and Mazda3-fighter will feature standard equipment such as stability control and the most powerful base and optional 4-cylinder engines in the class.
With two all-new cars in the wheelhouse of market demand, can Kia possibly hike its volume even in a year that's likely to see total demand of just 10 million or 11 million units?
"Tell me where the industry is going to be (in terms of total volume)," said Loveless, who said he won't project a volume gain for Kia because it's impossible to reliably project the year's sales.
Loveless is completely confident, though, that with the addition of the Soul and Forte, Kia will be able to make 2009 its fifteenth consecutive year of market-share gain.
He said Kia plans to ship about 40,000 Souls (the plural sounds creepy, no?) to the U.S. this year. But Kia would be happy to sell more "if the market will let us go there."
As for the Forte, "The [U.S.] C-segment is still huge," he said. "The Soul and Forte is a great one-two punch in the marketplace."
"We feel very good about our prospects this calendar year, even in this challenging environment," he said.
Where does Kia see the brand ultimately going by, say, 2011 -- when the oldest model in the lineup is the Borrego, which was launched last year?
"There's a lot of white space," Loveless said, between Toyota and Honda at one end of the competition spectrum and the Nissan-Mazda duo at the other end.
Photo by Kia
Kia's Forte, an all-new replacement for the compact Spectra, the brand's best-selling model, goes on sale in June.
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