Either Kia’s most senior Australian executive really is worried or he’s pulling off the best poker face in the industry. See, with less than a month of 2022 to go, Kia could become the third-best selling brand for the year, for the first time.
But whether this happens or not isn’t the most important thing to Kia, the company’s chief operating officer Damien Meredith said.
“It doesn’t worry us if we finish third, fourth, fifth or sixth,” Mr Meredith told CarsGuide at the launch of the new Seltos.
Despite those nerves of steel, it is getting interesting.
Just like in motorsport, often the nail-biting racing takes place between third and fourth while the lonely winner out in front crosses the line, and the same goes for the 2022 Australian new car sales results.
New vehicle sales for the year up to the end of November has Toyota on 214,776, and the brand will certainly take out the number one place. Mazda is currently a distant second on 87,218.
The real race sees Kia with a year-to-date tally of 72,700, Mitsubishi on 72,064 and Hyundai with 68,911.
If Mr Merideth is nervous about his brand making history and claiming third place for the first time, he’s not showing it.
“We take pride in a lot of the things that we’ve done, but whether we finish ahead of Hyundai or Mitsubishi doesn’t matter. You can only beat your chest for five minutes after that occurs, anyway,” he said.
“The growth’s been there, and we wanted consistency for the brand and consistency in what we’ve been doing, and we’ve achieved that – that’s great, we just want to keep on doing it.”
That methodical approach appears to be working even at a time when the industry is suffering from delays in new car deliveries due to the global semiconductor shortage.
Last year was also plagued by delays and short supply. Kia, however, still sold a very respectable 67,964 vehicles and placed fifth for 2021 behind Ford in fourth place on 71,380 while Hyundai came home third with 72,872 sales.
The past 12 months has seen Kia launch a swathe of new and updated models including the new-generation Sportage, the EV6 electric SUV, the Niro and the Seltos.
Keyword: Poker face! Kia Australia close to making history, but 'not worried' about 2022 outcome