Kia has grown into a firm UK favourite, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down
Paul Barker explains why the Korean brand is managing to win the hearts of so many British buyers
I wrote last week about Renault being a brand with momentum, and you’ll see from several recent news stories that Kia is another which is very much on a roll.
It’s been a long journey from the Pride (a rebadged Mazda 121) that arrived here in 1991 – but the Korean maker is now one of the UK’s most popular, having had its best-ever year in 2024. It registered more than 112,000 cars, putting it above the mighty Ford and behind only VW, BMW and Audi at the top of the charts.
In model terms, the Kia Sportage was beaten solely by the Ford Puma last year, and will get a facelift soon to increase its appeal, while the EV3 appeared in 2024 alongside an updated EV6, to expand the company’s EV portfolio.
But there’s more to come, and importantly it’s both petrol and electric. The brand isn’t abandoning internal combustion engines yet, despite the new EVs on the way. You can see more on those in deputy editor Richard Ingram’s video report from Kia’s EV Day event, available on the Auto Express YouTube channel.
It’s fascinating how some car companies just seem to bring the right cars at the right time, with smart styling, clever tech and competitive pricing: three elements that are crucial when car buyers have more choice than ever before.
Kia’s rise to sit second only to VW among the UK’s top mainstream makers is worthy of note, because the company, and Japanese arrivals in the seventies, are seen as examples of what new Chinese brands could achieve in the future.
The similarities are there, with companies little-known in the UK, despite success in domestic markets, arriving on our shores with models focusing very much on value. The differences now are in the sheer numbers – Kia wasn’t accompanied by several other Korean brands trying to make a mark at the same time – and the shift to electric vehicles, which has opened the door to greater acceptance of new names than was ever the case beforehand.
Kia is now well and truly part of the UK motoring landscape, but it didn’t happen overnight. And what’s clear to see from the new wave of products – electric and petrol cars of various shapes and sizes, and even vans – is that there’s plenty of reason to think its upward trajectory is far from over.
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