Kia Reports Record 4Q Earnings on Increased Sales of High-Profit Models (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Kia recorded its highest-ever performance in the fourth quarter of last year. This was largely due to a significant improvement in profitability through the expansion of new model sales.

On the 27th, Kia announced that its operating profit for the fourth quarter of last year reached 1.2816 trillion KRW, a 117% increase compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales revenue rose 5% to 16.9106 trillion KRW.

Both quarterly sales revenue and operating profit were the highest ever recorded on a quarterly basis.

In the fourth quarter, Kia's global sales totaled 742,695 units, nearly unchanged from the previous year (a 0.005% decrease), with 137,389 units sold domestically, down 5.2% year-on-year, and 605,306 units sold overseas, up 1.2% year-on-year.

Despite challenging conditions in the domestic market such as the resurgence of COVID-19, a reduced tax cut rate in the second half of the year, and partial strikes at domestic factories, the decline was minimized thanks to strong sales of key new models like Sorento, Carnival, and K5.

In overseas markets, sustained expansion of Telluride sales, which has established itself as a high-profit model in the U.S., along with significant sales growth in India, helped minimize the impact of sluggish sales in Europe, where market demand contracted, as well as in emerging markets such as Latin America and the Middle East.

Regarding operating profit that exceeded market expectations, improvements in sales mix driven by strong new model effects from Sorento, Carnival, and the new K5 in the domestic market, robust Telluride sales in the U.S., and increased sales of new models such as Seltos and Sonet in India were key factors.

The share of RV (recreational vehicle) sales rose to 58.7%, up 6.2 percentage points from the same period last year, reaching an all-time high, which the company explained played a decisive role in expanding profitability.

A company official stated, "Despite difficult management conditions due to production disruptions caused by partial strikes and decreased market demand amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, management performance improved through an increase in average selling price and mix improvement by expanding sales of high-profit new models." He added, "As a result, operating profit for this quarter reached a record high on a quarterly basis."

He continued, "This year, we will continue strong sales of high-profit RV models such as Seltos, Sorento, Carnival, and Telluride, further strengthen profitability with the launch of the global volume model Sportage, and sequentially introduce the dedicated electric vehicle model CV (project name) in key regions to solidify our position as a leading electric vehicle brand."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.