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Kia was one of the few brands that saw a U.S. increase in compact-car sales last year.
That achievement is giving the Korean brand a lot of faith as it prepares to launch the next generation of its Forte C-car this year.
“It’s still a 2 million(-unit) market,” Orth Hedrick, vice president-product planning for Kia Motors America, tells WardsAuto in an interview discussing the compact-car sector in the U.S.
In WardsAuto’s Upper Small segment, where most volume, non-niche C-cars live, sales tallied 2.02 million units in 2017. The group fell 2.2% from 2016, but Kia’s outgoing Forte bucked the downward trend, although it’s unclear if it was retail demand or fleet sales leading the charge.
Forte sales rose 13.8% to 117,596, making it the brand’s best-selling model in the U.S. in 2017. In the 21-nameplate Upper Small segment, only the Forte, Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Golf were in the black last year.
“One thing we always remind (people of is), when you want to move to a CUV there’s a premium involved,” Hedrick says of the American infatuation with utility vehicles. “To get the same price point (of a compact car) you have to (buy a small CUV), and I think for a lot of folks going all the way down to an HR-V or a Trax or Soul doesn’t work for them,” he says of Honda, Chevy and Kia’s respective small CUVs.
He cites the advantages the new Forte has over a small CUV as a large trunk, roomy backseat and good fuel economy. Kia Says Cars Not Dead; Stinger Brand, A-CUV, Pickup Not on Table
That achievement is giving the Korean brand a lot of faith as it prepares to launch the next generation of its Forte C-car this year.
“It’s still a 2 million(-unit) market,” Orth Hedrick, vice president-product planning for Kia Motors America, tells WardsAuto in an interview discussing the compact-car sector in the U.S.
In WardsAuto’s Upper Small segment, where most volume, non-niche C-cars live, sales tallied 2.02 million units in 2017. The group fell 2.2% from 2016, but Kia’s outgoing Forte bucked the downward trend, although it’s unclear if it was retail demand or fleet sales leading the charge.
Forte sales rose 13.8% to 117,596, making it the brand’s best-selling model in the U.S. in 2017. In the 21-nameplate Upper Small segment, only the Forte, Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Golf were in the black last year.
“One thing we always remind (people of is), when you want to move to a CUV there’s a premium involved,” Hedrick says of the American infatuation with utility vehicles. “To get the same price point (of a compact car) you have to (buy a small CUV), and I think for a lot of folks going all the way down to an HR-V or a Trax or Soul doesn’t work for them,” he says of Honda, Chevy and Kia’s respective small CUVs.
He cites the advantages the new Forte has over a small CUV as a large trunk, roomy backseat and good fuel economy. Kia Says Cars Not Dead; Stinger Brand, A-CUV, Pickup Not on Table
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