Crossing the Blues

Saturday, November 10, 2007

KIA Cee'd out sells Ford Focus (FI and CZ)

Update: 28/05/2008:

The Kia Cee'd has now sold in excess of 200,000 units. The 200,000th unit was a golden Pro-Cee'd for a customer in Germany

The popularity of Kia only increases these days and there is further proof of that with the high sales numbers of the automaker's European Cee'd C-segment hatchback. The Cee'd was the best-selling import (non-Skoda) car in the Czech Republic for October and was also the best-selling car in its class in Finland for the month of October.

The Cee'd was the top-selling imported C-segment car in the Czech Republic for the second time, having achieved the same in April. The brand managed to garner a 3.47% market share in the country, as Kia's total sales for October jumped 63%. Over a span of 10 months, Kia sales have increased 67% and slotted in the Top 10 Brands rank knocking out Fiat in the process.

In Finland, the Cee'd managed to gain enough sales last month to claim the no.1 position in its class. The Cee'd beat the Volkswagen Golf, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Auris and the Ford Focus. The Cee'd captured a staggering 14.7% market share in the demanding C-segment category. Kia's overall market share in the country leaped 50% to an impressive 7.2%. The Cee'd has a 5-star EuroNCAP rating and since its market launch in December of 2006, the automaker has received over 100,000 orders for the car. The Cee'd family consists of the conventional five-door hatch, the five-door estate, and the three-door Pro-Cee'd which are built at Kia's first European plant in Zilina, Slovakia. The €1 billion facility also assembles the 2008 Sportage compact SUV. All Cee'd's and Sportages sold in Europe come with Kia's 7-year/100,000 mile warranty.