“The market will continue to shrink by 10% to 20% this year and the main reason is the clunkers program. Out of the 66,000 cars sold last year, 15,000 were sold through the program and if the nominal system is introduced, too few cars will be scrapped to influence the market in any way,” Dan Chitaru said.
Kia Romauto’s 2013 target is double-digit growth, as Romania moved from Kia Ukraine under Kia Europe’s wing last fall. The company’s annual revenue stands at EUR14 million.
“We set our sales target at 1,100 to 1,300 cars this year, up 10% to 15% on last year. The growth will be driven by the stocks of cars available this year,” Chitaru said.
He explained that the importer had no car in stock for three months in 2012, while transitioning from Kia Ukraine to Kia Europe in August-October.
Kia’s best years in Romania were 2007 and 2008. In 2008, for instance, it sold more than 8,500 cars, matching rival Toyota’s sales. Last year, however, Kia sold 1,010 cars, half of its Japanese rival sales figures.
Kia sold 75 cars in the first two months of 2013, down 44% on the year-ago period. Its best-selling model is the Sportage compact SUV, 55 units, followed by Rio, 11.
“The first two months were rather slow for Kia, but we rebounded in March. Now in April, we’ll have cars in stock and launch a buy-back program (…),” Chitaru said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)