Wen\Wei WuXian
Kia's dilemma has been evident lately, in terms of declining sales and on the other hand, in the loss of performance.
Sales data show that Kia's sales in 2017-2020 were 359,000 units, 370,000 units, 289,800 units, and 249,000 units, respectively, while in 2021, it further shrank to less than 160,000 units, and the decline in sales was very obvious.
In terms of performance, Kia has also fallen into consecutive years of losses, and relevant data show that between 2017 and 2021, the cumulative loss of Dongfeng Yueda Kia has been above 9 billion yuan.
Sales continue to decline, performance continues to lose, but also let the former iron triangle "Dongfeng, Yueda, Kia" began to make new choices. According to public information, Dongfeng Motor Group has successfully transferred 25% of its equity in Dongfeng Yueda Kia for 297 million yuan in January this year, officially withdrawing from the tripartite shareholding model, and Dongfeng Yueda Kia has also changed its name to Kia Automobile Co., Ltd.
It can be said that whether it is from the perspective of sales volume or performance, Kia is facing a lot of difficulties in China, and the reason for this result is that I think it is related to Kia itself and the changes in the market environment.
As far as Kia itself is concerned, after the "THAAD" incident, the Korean cars represented by Kia and Hyundai have encountered a lot of crisis, and the decline in sales is very obvious, which has caused a decline in its brand image and reputation, which in turn has led to a decrease in the share of the mind, and finally caused a decline in sales.
In order to save declining sales, Kia is not without action, for example, during the period when Kia's former general manager Li Feng was in charge of Kia, he reshaped Kia's dealer network and launched products with high hopes such as K5 Kaiku and the new K3. However, its sales performance was not outstanding.
Taking February sales as an example, Kia K5 sales in January are only 558 units, while K3 is 1457 units, such sales are not only ranked low in the domestic car market, but also difficult for Kia itself to accept. Obviously, the lack of recognition of the product is an important reason for the decline in sales.
Due to the lack of improvement in performance, general manager Li Feng also left his post in March last year, and Kia also received more attention from industry insiders due to frequent executive changes.
In fact, Kia's successive losses may not only be the "pot" of products and executives, after the domestic car market enters the stock competition, the environment facing car companies is more complicated, and if they want to improve, they cannot be completed overnight.
On the one hand, after the arrival of the new four modernizations of automobiles, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has increased rapidly, and the sales of new energy vehicle products have risen rapidly, but although Kia has planned, it has not landed much. It's not done fast enough to launch enough products, which gives it no advantage on the new track.
On the other hand, in terms of traditional fuel vehicles, whether it is independent brands or Japanese brands have launched more products, the competitors of friends and Kia's smart running, Yipao, K3, K5, etc. are more than enough, in the face of increasingly mature consumers, Kia's products do not have "scarcity".
Therefore, the reasons may be complicated, but from the current results, Kia's sales and performance have not improved. In the face of the current predicament, the solution given by Kia's new general manager Liu Changsheng is that Kia should gradually get rid of the label of "cost performance". Therefore, we see that the highly priced Jiahua has been listed, but its monthly sales of 200 units in February this year seem to indicate that this is also a "high and low" work.
Write at the end:
Kia wants to go to the high end, not just shouting slogans can be achieved, can its product quality and brand premium support such goals? Are consumers willing to pay? These are all issues that Kia still needs to consider further. If these problems cannot be solved, then the decline in sales and performance may be difficult to see the inflection point in the short term, and Kia wants to get back on its feet.
(This article is originally produced by the editorial department of [Auto Industry] New Media, the author of this article is Wei Wuxian, and the reprint should indicate the source)