In recent years, Kia Motors' performance in China has been very sluggish, after 2016 to the peak of 650,000 vehicles, Dongfeng Yueda Kia has declined at an almost roller coaster-like speed, from 2017 to last year's 2021, Dongfeng Yueda Kia completed the "feat" of "five consecutive falls". From the sales data, it can be seen that Dongfeng Yueda Kia's sales in 2017-2020 were 359,000 units, 370,000 units, 289,800 units, and 249,000 units, respectively, and in 2021, the decline was still not stopped, and the annual sales volume was only 158,500 units. The sharp decline in sales has made Dongfeng Motor choose to sell 25% of the shares of Dongfeng Yueda Kia and completely withdraw from playing.
Now that the Korean side has more say, it naturally does not want to give up the fertile land of the Chinese market, and in addition to laying out dealer outlets as soon as possible, the introduction of new products is undoubtedly a more immediate way, after all, new cars can get the attention of the market. Recently, it has been reported that Kia's flagship SUV, the Barui, will be introduced to domestic production. Kia, which has repeatedly hit a wall at a compact price point, broke the can this time and directly introduced a medium and large SUV to compete.
In terms of appearance, the design language of The Sharp is quite a bit of the style of the American car, the overall shape is quite tough, and the transition of the contour is also straight forward. The vertical grille is integrated with the headlights on both sides, and chrome elements are added to the front face to embellish it, bringing more sense of luxury. The sides are quite tall, and a large number of straight lines outline the body body also ensures the utilization of the space inside the car. In terms of size, the length, width and height of the Bari are 4930*1915*1810mm, respectively.
The interior design is in line with kia's family language, although the sense of technology is not very strong, but it retains a large number of physical physical buttons, for a family-oriented SUV, this design is suitable for all ages, without much learning costs. In addition, at the material level, it can be seen that the door panel is covered with a lot of leather, and wood grain trim panels are added, and the overall look is not rough at all. In terms of technology configuration, it is equipped with a 12.3-inch LCD central control screen and an LCD instrument.
In terms of power, the Barrey is equipped with a 3.0T diesel turbocharged engine with a maximum horsepower of 260 hp, a peak torque of 260 Nm, and a transmission system matching an 8AT gearbox. In addition, the chassis part adopts a non-load-bearing body and is equipped with a differential lock, so the off-road ability of the car should be good.
As you can see from its appearance, as well as its power and chassis, the Positioning of the Barre is more like a hardcore off-road SUV like the Prado. This is also in line with the current domestic market wind direction, and now the hardcore SUV is more and more popular in the market, such as the two cars of the tank brand, which attract many consumers to pay for it with excellent cost performance. Choosing to use the off-road market as an entry point is indeed a good way, after all, there are fewer choices in this market now, and the competition will not be too fierce. Of course, the final key is still to look at the pricing, there is news that Barui will be priced at 250,000 yuan, although I think the possibility is not very large, but if it is really similar price, then its cost performance is still commendable.
In recent years, Kia has launched new Models such as Kaiku and Jiahua in China, but all of them have not returned. Consumers' enthusiasm for Korean cars is gradually fading, and the market prefers to choose its own brand rather than give Korean cars a chance. I think that even if The Bari is introduced to China and sets off a heat, it is difficult to promote Kia to return to its previous peak state due to the relatively small market segment it faces.
Starting this year, Kia will gradually transform, cancel the original models below 100,000 yuan, and also introduce more global models, while taking into account the development of new energy vehicles, so that an electric vehicle can be used every year to help enhance the brand image. We will see how much improvement it will be.