Kia News: Kia Reveals A New Subcompact Crossover is Coming to U.S.

[William Maley]

Kia's car-heavy lineup has been hurting them in terms of sales as consumers want more truck and utilities. Through September, Kia sales in the U.S. dropped 1.3 percent to 452,042 vehicles. But Kia CEO Han-Woo Park tells Automotive News that he expects "our performance in the U.S. market to rebound soon."

This will be due in part to two new crossovers arriving next year; the Telluride next Spring, followed by a new subcompact crossover in the second half. The subcompact crossover will be based on the SP Concept that debuted at India's Auto Expo in March. Production of the U.S. version will take place in South Korea.

Park said Kia would consider other crossover models and possibly a small truck, though there are no plans for the latter.

"It's not an easy market, the pickup market in the U.S.," he said.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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[G. David Felt]

Kia should give Toyota, Chevrolet, etc. a run for some money once they have the right CUV mix as they clearly kill it on pricing and warranty.

[A Horse With No Name]

For some money yes but they still trail domestics and Japanese in terms of build quality imho.

[daves87rs]

Th true question is goin to be if it is going to help the slide in sales. Looks kinda cool though...

I don’t expect sales in general to head back up....

[riviera74]

16 hours ago, daves87rs said:

Th true question is goin to be if it is going to help the slide in sales. Looks kinda cool though...

I don’t expect sales in general to head back up....

Why would KIA sales rise?  They are bringing an also-ran product into a congested market.  Also, they might cannibalize sales of their own Soul.

[daves87rs]

20 hours ago, riviera74 said:

Why would KIA sales rise?  They are bringing an also-ran product into a congested market.  Also, they might cannibalize sales of their own Soul.

1- The Soul only has a few years left anyways

2- Still better than the Ecospot (I meant Ecosport) and whatever Nissan calls theirs.....

3-They still understand what a discount is....

On 10/30/2018 at 8:17 AM, dfelt said:

Kia should give Toyota, Chevrolet, etc. a run for some money once they have the right CUV mix as they clearly kill it on pricing and warranty.

 

Yep- people are going to want value for their money....