Kia UK rides the pandemic and microchip shortages storm

If the saying ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ rings true, then Kia UK is made of very stern stuff indeed.

During the financial crisis of 2009, it was one of the main manufacturer beneficiaries of the Government’s scrappage scheme as it capitalised on the car-buying incentive to supercharge its registrations and establish itself as a mainstream brand.

And now, in the toughest market conditions since – the result of the Covid-19 pandemic and vehicle supply shortages – it has been one of the few manufacturers in the UK to grow its market share, with this success driven by the fleet sector.

Kia UK is on track to achieve its 2021 sales target of 90,000 cars despite the country going back into lockdown at the start of the year and a disappointing Q1 which saw it 7,000 registrations behind its curve.

“If anything has helped us achieve our plans this year, it’s been the fleet market which was the fastest sector to recover back in April,” says Steve Hicks, sales director at Kia UK.

“As a manufacturer, if you don’t achieve what you want in Q1 it’s almost impossible to catch that volume back, demand just goes. But we managed to sell through that as best we could and, right now, we still have cars an are delivering cars to all of our customers in all sales channels.

“I’m not saying we have huge supply, but deliveries have been about 8,000 to 9,000 a month, which is above the (annual) 90,000 sales plan.