Kia hopes that new product roll-outs will boost sales in ailing Europe and continue its momentum in the United States this year.
Like parent group Hyundai, which said yesterday that it thinks it will gain ground in Europe while other brands will lose share, Kia is bullish on the market. In general, the European new car market is expected to retract slightly in 2012, but Kia says it anticipates boosting sales 23 percent to 356,000 in 2012.
In Europe, Kia is hedging its bets primarily on its new cee’d compact line.
The Korean automaker anticipates a smaller gain in North America, but a 10 percent jump to 534,000 cars this year will still outpace the industry average. Kia launched several new products last year, but a new version of its top-selling Forte compact sedan and hatchback range will debut later this year.
Overall, Kia says that its global sales pace in 2012 won’t match last year’s 19.2 percent gain to 2.48 million cars, but the company thinks it can increase global sales about 10 percent to 2.71 million vehicles.
Q4 profit down
While Hyundai’s fourth quarter profits were up last year, the Kia division saw a 3.5 percent slide to a $705 million net profit.
In part, the soft net profit figure comes from the company’s Korean operations, which it hopes will be turned around by a new K9 premium sedan set to debut in a few months.
“We aim to sell more than 2,000 K9s per month in the domestic market,” Kia CFO Lee Jae-rok told reporters today during a conference call.
Overall, the automaker posted a record high earning of $3 billion in net profit last year, a figure that’s up 30 percent over the year prior.
