Kia did not rule out the suspension of sales in Russia

South Korean company Kia did not rule out that, in the worst case scenario, it could lose the opportunity to supply cars to the Russian market with only after-sales service remaining. This was stated by Executive Vice President of Kia Motors Chu Woo Jeong, according to whom, one of the key negative factors for Kia sales could be volatility in Russia the next year, and the car market in the country itself could completely "collapse" for some time.

The top manager did not answer the question about the sale of factories in Russia, the Lenta.ru portal writes. Earlier it became known that Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus plant in St. Petersburg, where the most popular foreign cars Hyundai Creta, Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio were produced, will be mothballed in the near future. In addition, at the end of September, the Avtotor Kaliningrad plant completed the production of Hyundai and Kia cars from the available stocks of components. According to the results of 9 months of 2022, 56,170 Kia cars were purchased in Russia, which is 65% lower in compare with the same period of the previous year, experts of the AUTOSTAT agency reported with the reference to the data of JSC "PPK"*. As a result, Kia brand keeps its leadership among all foreign automakers represented in Russia.

* JSC "PPK" ("Passport Industrial Consulting") is a joint venture of JSC "Electronic Passport" and LLC "AUTOSTAT".