Han-woo Park, President of Kia Motors, "18,800 Sorento Pre-orders on First Day... Confident This Year"

Sorento Followed by Carnival Successor in Second Half and Next Year's Sportage Release
President Park Evaluates "Entering a Virtuous Cycle in the US... China is a 'Pain Point'"

At the end of last year, Park Han-woo, President of Kia Motors, is speaking at the launch event of the new Kia K5 held at Grand Walkerhill Seoul in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] "Starting with the Sorento this year, we plan to sell 2.96 million units globally through new car launches including the Carnival. Once the issues in the Chinese market are resolved, we believe we can make up for it in other global markets."

Kia Motors President Park Han-woo stated this on the 20th at the ‘2020 Car of the Year’ awards ceremony held at Sebitseom, Banpo, Seoul. He said, "Since last year, we have entered a new car cycle by consecutively releasing the Seltos, Mohave, K7, K5, and others." In particular, the 4th generation Sorento, which began pre-orders on the 20th, received 18,800 orders in just one day. This is the highest number of first-day pre-orders ever for Hyundai-Kia Motors, surpassing the 17,294 units of Hyundai’s 'The New Grandeur' launched last year. Following this, new car offensives will continue with the next-generation Carnival model in the second half of this year and the Sportage next year.

Regarding this, President Park explained, "With a lot of help from the research center, we incorporated all possible new technologies to make a good car, and we are now seeing the results."

He also shared the atmosphere in major global markets such as the U.S. and China. While the U.S. is considered to have entered a somewhat virtuous cycle, China is still regarded as a "painful hand," according to President Park.

Currently, Kia’s star model in the U.S. market is undoubtedly the large SUV 'Telluride.' President Park said, "Currently, there is no dealer inventory of the Telluride," adding, "We plan to complete production increase to 100,000 units in the first half and meet demand in the second half, but supply may still be insufficient." Regarding the recently launched small SUV Seltos in the U.S., he reported, "The response is good across all regions in the U.S."

Regarding the Chinese market, he said, "Last year, we made many efforts such as managing inventory and clearing out old stock, but from early this year, difficulties arose again due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)." He emphasized, "Kia has experience overcoming difficulties multiple times in the past, so we will overcome this as well." Kia currently expects production disruptions at its Chinese plants due to COVID-19 to continue through the first half of the year.

Additionally, plans for a new brand system innovation, including changing the Kia emblem in October, were announced. President Park said, "Due to procedures such as global trademark rights, time is needed, so we plan to announce both BI (Brand Identity) and CI (Corporate Image) in October this year," hinting, "(The new emblem) will be similar to the recently revealed concept car emblem but slightly modified."

Meanwhile, Kia is experiencing production disruptions not only at its Chinese plants but also at domestic plants due to the impact of COVID-19. In the case of domestic plants, operations have been alternating between running and shutdowns because the supply of wiring harness parts produced in Chinese plants has not stabilized. Regarding this, President Park said, "Once the (parts) supply stabilizes, we will increase production even if it means working overtime," emphasizing, "We are confident in this year’s sales."

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