Big milestone for Kia Sportage
Popular medium-sized SUV the Kia Sportage has just recorded a significant milestone – it has attained five million sales worldwide.
Launched in 1993 and now into its fourth generation, it is currently achieving global average monthly sales of more than 38,000.
In New Zealand the Sportage has been a best-selling SUV in the country over the past two years, vying with such product as the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5 for top honours each month.
‘‘Sportage has become a benchmark in the medium SUV segment in New Zealand and its popularity continues to grow in a competitive market,’’ says Todd McDonald, general manager of Kia Motors New Zealand.
‘‘It has helped elevate Kia as a brand in New Zealand and we have been able to leverage this success to focus on other vehicles in the Kia range, such as the Sorento large SUV, Rio, Cerato and Picanto passenger cars and now our two newest models, the Stinger and the Niro compact SUV.’’
The Sportage is widely regarded as a pioneer of the urban SUV concept, making its first appearance at the 1991 Tokyo Motor Show.
It can claim to help set the blueprint for a compact SUV, suitable for use in a variety of environments, long before most other manufacturers caught on. Going on sale in 1993, this first generation Sportage was an instant hit, recording total lifetime sales of more than 500,000 units.
The second-generation Sportage appeared in 2004, and sales totalled 1,223,776 units globally after seven years of production.
The third-generation model, which arrived in 2010, surpassed one million sales in just four years, helping the Sportage reach two million cumulative sales during its sixth year in production.
The fourth and current generation Sportage is offered with a choice of petrol and diesel variants, a six-speed sequential shift automatic transmission and the availability of all-wheel-drive on some models.
Styling has been a Sportage strength, the vehicle awarded ‘iF Design’ and ‘red dot’ design prizes in Europe in both its third and fourth generations.