In case
you weren’t watching, one half of the Hyundai Motor Group has taken flight in
recent years. Between 2010 and 2014, Kia
increased sales by nearly two thirds, giving it higher totals than Dodge or
Subaru can muster in America. With an electrified concept unveiled and the Soul
EV outperforming expectations, the Korean brand has begun wielding electric
vehicles as a weapon to expand U.S. market share. Here’s a look at the green
side of Kia and its effect on
the brand’s performance.
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Record Kia sales in 2014
Jeep
and Subaru had extraordinary years in 2014, but Kia joined the party with 580,234
sales, a record for the automaker and 63% better than its performance in 2010.
Over half of those sales belonged to Optima, the brand’s best seller (159,020
units), and Soul, which gained 23% in 2014 over the previous year with 145,316
sales.
Taken
together, the brand posted 8.4% growth on the U.S. market. Among its most
conspicuous debuts was the Kia
Soul EV, the first battery electric model from Hyundai Motor Group and the
green version of the popular city car. Released with low expectations as a way
to address consumer complaints about Kia’s lack of green cars, the Soul EV has
taken on a life the automaker never predicted.
Electric
vehicle strategy
According
to Michael Sprague, a marketing executive for Kia, it wasn’t long ago that
consumers considered Kia
“environmentally unfriendly” because there were no hybrids or EVs in the
product lineup. Sprague told USA Today in August 2014 that Kia consciously
brought both the Optima hybrid and later the Soul EV to America to address that
conception. Even before sales on the pure electric car began, the company was
bullish on its new product.
“The
Soul EV is lifting the entire brand,” Sprague said in an interview with USA Today.
“It will serve as the focus of our Clean Mobility campaign.”
Just
four months into sales of the Soul EV, company officials were going on the
record saying they were shocked at the very positive reception to the electric
Soul. Orth Hedrick, Kia’s VP
of product planning in America, told AutoblogGreen that though the EV was “more
than [a] compliance [car]” and was fully intended to grow Soul sales, the early
returns had made it “a huge hit.”
As a
result, Hedrick said the rollout of the EV would expand beyond the original
five-state plan and aim at a larger U.S. market, with confirmation coming as
early as the New York Auto Show in April. At press time, sales remained limited
to California.
Exceeding expectations
Anyone
who wants to look into the surprise success of the Soul EV may simply glance at
some reviews of the funky electric car. By most accounts, real-world range has
exceeded the automaker’s expectations and the EPA figure of 93 miles on a full
charge. Most remarkably, HybridCars.com tests ran the Soul EV to 125 miles with
9 miles left to spare according to the battery gauge.
Likewise,
drivers using the Soul EV in city driving (i.e., where it is recommended) have
noted it regularly clocks over 100 miles making the rounds in California. The
enthusiasm for the car seems to be pivoting on this surprising performance,
which prompts the word-of-mouth boosting that has become essential for EV
sales.
On the
heels of this success, Kia
released a daring concept version of the Soul called the Trail’ster that
features electric all-wheel drive (AWD) at the Chicago Auto Show in February.
More powerful and, using that electric-AWD assist, more efficient than any
gasoline version of this car, Trail’ster was an upscale surprise from Kia, hinting at the brand’s
momentum from its previous green experiments (the Kia foray into
high-end sedans, the K900, flopped with 1,330 sales in 2014).
Whether
or not Trail’ster arrives or informs the standard Soul, it appears the path
forward for Kia is paved in
green. Between the high demand for the EV and the great reception for the
Trail’ster concept, maybe that focus should remain on the brand’s funky city
car as well.
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