Kia UK has claimed a 22% rise in retail sales year-to-date and 10% rise overall, while fleet registrations have stuttered, according to Paul Philpott, president and chief executive officer at the brand.
By the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, overall new registrations of Kia were up 10.38% to 45,479, with a market share of 3.27%, for the first eight months of 2013.
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Philpott told Motor Finance the focus of the South Korean manufacturer in the UK would be on "customer retention", which has pushed PCP deals in the third quarter under the Kia Access brand.
Kia recently passed half-a-million new registrations in the UK, 250,000 of which have been in the past five years, and Philpott spoke again of his hopes the brand would one-day achieve 100,000 sales a year in the market.
Speaking to headlineauto at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Philpott said Kia UK had "consciously reduced sales to low margin business such as daily rental from 8,500 to 6,000 but we are well on track to achieve sales of over 72,000 vehicles this year, up from 66,000 last year".
A full interview with Paul Philpott will be published in the September issue of Motor Finance magazine.
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By GlobalDatarichard.brown@timetric.com
