On Rolling in Mexico
Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's No. 2 automaker, saw its sales increase by a whopping 427 percent last year in two years after it entered the Mexican market. As sales of Hyundai Motor also grew by 38 percent, the combined sales of the two companies approached 100,000 units. In particular, Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor showed the highest and second highest increase in sales among other auto brands in Mexico.
According to the data from the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMDA) on January 16, Kia sold 58,112 vehicles in Mexico last year and took 8th place after beating Mazda Motor. The figure is up a whopping 427.3 percent from 11,021 units at the previous year.
Kia, which tapped into the Mexican market in 2015, has been able to increase sales in a short period of time thanks to its Mexican plant which was completed in September last year. As it started operations of the Mexican plant, not only the K3, which is produced in the local plant, but also the Sportage and the Pride, which are exported from South Korea, are selling well. All three models sold more than 10,000 units in Mexico last year.
Hyundai Motor ranked 10th in terms of market share with sales of 37,287 units, up 38.2 percent from a year ago. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold a combined total of 94,399 units, holding 5.9 percent of the Mexican market. There is a huge gap in market shares with the top three – Nissan with 25 percent, GM with 19.2 percent and Volkswagen with 15.4 percent. However, there is all but no gap with Toyota and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) with 6.5 percent each and Ford with 6.2 percent. Considering its growth last year, Hyundai-Kia Motors is expected to make top five in the Mexican market this year. Meanwhile, the Mexican auto market grew 18.6 percent last year from a year earlier to reach a total of 1,603,672 units.