Kia Motors UK has predicted annual sales of 72,000 units in 2013, and spoken of its confidence in securing enough stock to expand registrations.

New car registrations for the brand stood at 58,307 units for the year-to-September, up by 10.22% compared to the first nine months of 2012, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

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Similarly, at the end of 2012, the brand expected registrations of more than 65,000 units, spurring an expansion of its retail operation. This was confirmed in January 2013, when the brand announced total registrations for 2012 of 66,629 units.

Model lines

Speaking to Motor Finance in September, Paul Philpott, president and chief executive officer of Kia Motors UK, said the brand’s eventual aim to sell 100,000 cars a year was dependent on its ability to "keep pace with demand because, globally, on some model lines, we’re well at production capacity right now".

Yaser Shabsogh, UK commercial director for Kia, told headlineauto: "Every month we struggle to figure out how we are going to get extra allocation, but at the start of the year we decided we were going to push the supply chain to the limit."

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Shabsogh explained this meant competition within the brand across Europe to make sure stock was available. "There’s been a little bit of a switch within Europe, but the Greeks and the French and the other markets are fighting for supply just as hard as we are," he said. "Europe in general is slightly ahead of the business plan."

Philpott was likewise confident the UK market would receive the requisite Kia stock: "Europe is the most competitive market anywhere in the world, and the UK is the leading market within Western Europe. We’re pretty important to Kia globally, and this year we’ll account for about 20% of Kia’s sales in Western Europe."

8,000 ex-fleet

Shabsogh added part of Kia’s aim to increase stock availability for retail would see sales to daily rental fleets limited to 10% of total volume, following Philpott’s comments that the brand had reduced supply to low-margin business operations.

The brand is also taking back the majority of its fleet cars for resale and now expects 8,000 annual registrations under its Approved Used scheme.

Shabsogh said he was pleased with the residual values (RVs) held by the brands models, noting the Sportage retained an average 80% after 12 months and that Kia models were regularly in top quarter for RVs for every segment.

richard.brown@timetric.com