Global Sales of Kia Sportage Hits Milestone of Five Million

Kia Motors has achieved the milestone of sale of five million units of its best-selling compact SUV, the Kia Sportage.

The Kia Sportage was launched in 1993, and has now spanned four generations. It achieved this sales milestone in the year it is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The latest variant that was launched in 2016 had average global sales of 38,000 units per month in 2017.

Ho Sung Song, Executive Vice President of Global Operations Divison said that Kia was extremely proud to achieve this milestone production figure for the Sportage and said that the model’s increasing popularity highlights the breadth of its car’s abilities and the level of appeal it has to buyers in markets on a global basis.

He added, “Since 1993, the Sportage has become a benchmark car in the compact SUV segment, and its success has also led to the creation of a diverse and comprehensive range of SUVs and crossovers from Kia – with other new models to follow in future.”

In 2016 and 2017, the Sportage overtook the B-segment Rio as Kia’s global best-selling model. Strong sales of the Sportage in January and February 2018 – 36,632 and 32,930 units respectively – helped significantly for Kia to achieve this production landmark.

The Sportage made its global debut at the 1991 Tokyo Motor Show, thus introducing the concept of the ‘Urban SUV’ to consumers for the first time. It emerged as a compact, practical SUV, that could be used in a wide range of environments. This first generation Sportage proved to be an immense success, recording total lifetime sales of over 500,000 units.

Sales of the second-generation Sportage came to 1,223,776 units globally in seven years. The third-generation model achieved sales of one million less than that time, in just four years, with the Sportage crossing two million cumulative sales during its sixth year in production.

The fourth and current generation Sportage is notable for its bold and progressive design, and is more practical with a range of comfort, convenience and safety technologies. Its engine and transmission line-up also provides enhanced efficiency and performance to address a broad range of customer needs.

The Kia Sportage has won awards like the ‘iF Design’ and ‘red dot’ design prizes in both its third and fourth generations. The Sportage also achieved the highest safety rating from the USA’s Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in 2017.

The one-millionth fourth-generation Sportage was sold in January, after just 29 months on-sale.