Kia America reports another strong sales result in the United States. In March, the company sold 71,294 vehicles (up 20 percent year-over-year), which is the second-highest monthly level ever. In Q1, sales amounted to 184,136 (up 22 percent year-over-year).
Meanwhile, sales of the all-electric Kia EV6 continue to decrease, reaching just 988 units last month (1.4 percent of the total volume). That's almost a 69 percent decrease year-over-year from an initially very strong level a year ago (3,126 units).
It's difficult to say what caused the EV6 to now be oscillating around just 1,000 units per month, but the two main reasons might be the lack of eligibility for the $7,500 federal tax credit and the limited supply of new vehicles.
Kia EV6 sales in the US – March 2023
So far this year, over 2,390 Kia EV6 have been sold in the US (down 36 percent year-over-year), which is also 1.8 percent of Kia's total volume.
For reference, during the 12 months of 2022, Kia sold a total of 20,498 EV6 in the US and an additional 8,209 Niro EV, which in total means over 28,700 units.
It will be very interesting to see whether something will change in latter part of the year, or if the EV6 will simply glide at that level.
We don't know the Kia Niro EV sales in March yet (those numbers come later, through the company's different report), but in the past, it has usually been from a few hundred to over 1,000 units a month.
Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not report sales of other plug-in models, as they are counted together with conventional or non-rechargeable hybrid versions.
For Kia, the near-term boost might be the new performance-oriented Kia EV6 GT version (above the GT-Line trim), which can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds (see the EV6 lineup here), and the upcoming all-new Kia EV9 model - a large, three-row SUV, based on the E-GMP platform.
In the long-term, crucial will be the local production of all-electric cars in the US.
