Kia UK has reached the milestone of more than 100,000 sales in one year for the first time in its 32-year history in the market.

Kia is now the sixth biggest car brand in the UK

The landmark achievement follows deliveries of 3,540 new vehicles in December, which helped push the full-year sales result to an all-time high of 100,191.

That’s despite the overall 2.0% downturn across the UK new car sales market as a whole, showing how the Korean carmaker bucked the trend.

It now has an all-time best market share of 6.2% and has taken sixth place in the manufacturers’ league table.

Demand was driven by the launch of the fifth-gen Sportage, which went on sale in mid-December 2021, and the Picanto, which topped the A-segment for several months. These were followed by the March arrival of the Sportage PHEV, which has proved particularly popular with company car drivers thanks to its low 8% Benefit-in-Kind taxation figure, and the July debut of the all-new Niro in hybrids, PHEV and fully electric guises. More recently, sales have grown due to the introduction of the new XCeed – offered as both a petrol and a plug-in hybrid model.

Since the brand launched in the UK in July 1991, it’s sold almost 1.4 million cars in Britain.

It’s also proved a leader in electrification; Kia’s total hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full EV sales topped 42,988 in 2022, 43% of its overall sales.

Paul Philpott, president and CEO of Kia UK, commented: “Reaching 100,000 new car sales in 2022 is a significant milestone and testament to the hard work, determination and belief that each of our dealer partners have placed in Kia. It is also a time to say thank you to our dealers and our customers for their trust and loyalty.

“Since Kia first entered the UK car market 32 years ago, the brand has gone from strength-to-strength. Kia has continually thrived in a challenging market, our brand and products have evolved and perceptions have changed. Each of these have played an important role in Kia’s sustainable and organic growth.”

The marque has also ambitious plans for growth, backed by its investment in electrified mobility and ‘customer-centric’ products and services. Globally, it will introduce 14 EV models by 2027 as part of its ‘Plan S’ strategy. Nine of these models will make their way to the UK market.

Several models will be built on the Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) architecture – including the flagship EV9 large SUV, due for launch later this year.