Kia reports that its global vehicle sales in August increased by 5.2 percent year-over-year to 255,481 units. After eight months of 2023, the South Korean brand sold 2,092,200 vehicles (up 8.9 percent year-over-year).
In terms of all-electric car sales, August was pretty solid – one of the strongest months ever (over 15,900 units sold) and with the highest growth rate in over a year (up 82 percent).
In August, the Kia EV6 and EV9 wholesale sales (closely related to production) amounted to 9,578 (up by roughly 100 percent), including 6,916 EV6 and 2,662 EV9. An interesting thing is that the vast majority of the EV9 (over 2,250) were exported and it was the first-ever volume shipment of the EV9 outside South Korea.
Kia reports wholesale sales (on the manufacturer level or plant sales) unless otherwise specified, unaudited, and on a preliminary basis.
So far this year, Kia’s average E-GMP-based EV volume (EV6 and EV9) appears to be close to 10,000 units a month.
We guess that in the coming months, there is a big chance to go noticeably beyond 10,000 units a month.
So far this year, Kia EV6/EV9 wholesale sales exceeded 76,000 (up 38 percent year-over-year).
In its monthly sales data report, Kia also lists 7,479 retail sales of the Kia EV6 outside of South Korea (a new record), including 2,449 in the United States.
The retail sales outside of South Korea of other electric car models – Kia Niro EV, Kia Niro Plus EV, and Kia Soul EV – exceeded 7,000. We don’t have numbers for Kia’s home market.
Kia BEV sales last month:
- EV6: 7,479 retail sales outside South Korea
(6,916 wholesale – 948 in South Korea and 5,968 exported) - EV9: 4 retail sales outside South Korea
(2,662 wholesale – 408 in South Korea and 2,254 exported) - Niro EV: 6,682 retail sales outside South Korea
- Niro Plus EV: 10 retail sales outside South Korea
- Soul EV: 404 retail sales outside South Korea
- Total*: at least 15,935 (up 82% year-over-year) or 6.2% of the total volume
*South Korea (EV6, EV9) + overseas retail sales data (EV6, EV9, Niro EV, Niro Plus EV, Soul EV)
Unfortunately, Kia does not report PHEV numbers.
For reference, in 2022, the company sold more than 130,000 all-electric cars.