Kia's January 2024 US Sales Down Slightly, Year-Over-Year, But Still Setting Records

Kia released numbers for its first month of US sales in 2024 earlier this week. While their sales were down just slightly from January 2023 (893 fewer sales this year), Kia still managed to set a few records.

But first, I’ll also point out that Kia’s January sales were the second month in a row where total US sales slipped, compared to the previous year. January’s sales decline was also about 6x worse than the previous month’s decline. In December of 2023, Kia’s sales were only down 147 units compared to December 2022. I don’t think these small declines mean all that much, ultimately, but it does perhaps prompt us to look toward the next few months to see if perhaps Kia is encountering stiff headwinds in the US market, rather than just a tiny bump (or dip, rather).

On to the good news! Kia’s electric vehicle (EV) sales increased 57%, year-over-year and this increase was mostly due to the brand new EV9, in its second full month on sale, which moved 1,408 units. The EV6 helped a little bit with that 57% growth, moving 103 more units in January this year, than last (for a total of 1,213 units this January). The Kia EV model that did not help in that growth last month is the one that did all the heavy lifting in Kia’s EV sales last year, the Niro EV. I estimate Kia sold around 650-750 Niro EVs last month. I have to estimate because Kia does not release sales figures for the separate Niro versions (there are also hybrid (HEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Niros). However, now that there are 3 distinct Kia EV models, I can perhaps estimate slightly better how many Niro EVs are sold in any given month since instead of having only half of the sales by model information direct from Kia, I now have ⅔ of it. My possibly conservative estimate of how many Niro EV models Kia sold last January (about 25% of the total), has been replaced by a slightly more optimistic one as I expect the Niro EV made up somewhere between 32-36% of all Niro sales last month. In total then I estimate Kia sold somewhere around 3,330 EVs in the US last month, which if it turned out to be the average figure for 2024 would mean Kia is on track to sell about 40,000 EVs in the US this year (and that would be an increase of around 25% or 8,000 more EVs compared to 2023 sales). Of course we only have one month of data so far, and it is premature to assume it is representative of the rest of the year and at best we can say Kia is off to a good start with its EV sales, this year.

Besides the good start for EV sales, Kia’s SUV models continue to dominate its overall sales, with well over half of all its sales last month being from its 5 different SUV models. If we also count the sales of its 3 crossover vehicles, that would count for about 66% of all Kia’s sales last month, combined (the rest being sales of cars and or minivans). Speaking of Kia’s model line, 4 of them had their best January sales ever: the Carnival, Sportage, Forte and EV6. The EV6 only has one prior US January sales month to compare to, so Kia is really just saying “hey, we sold about 100 more EV6s this year, compared to last year”. Overall, that isn’t worth getting too excited about, yet, since Kia sold 8% fewer EV6s last year than they did in their first year on sale (2022, and the EV6 was only on sale 11 of the 12 months that year!). However, it is heading in the right direction and if Kia can keep selling more EV6s each month than they did the year before, they’ll set a new record for EV6 sales this year. But therein lies the rub. Kia is facing the same challenges all other EV makers face if they don’t qualify for US federal sales incentives: they have to slash their prices and focus on leases versus sales, to remain competitive. I’ll note that even with those challenges, Kia (and its corporate sister brands Hyundai and Genesis) still managed to finish 2nd in the US EV sales race last year. One way Kia may also buoy sales in light of these challenges is focusing more product toward states and regions that offer their own EV purchase incentives. I believe Kia will be able to increase its sales (or leases) of EVs to its highest level yet this year, especially with the popularity of its new EV models, but I wouldn’t expect exponential growth. If all goes well, Kia could certainly see double digit growth in its EV sales this year and help the US achieve its first year of double digit market share for EVs, too.

Are you interested in any of Kia’s EVs, or other electrified models? Which ones and why? Do you think of Kia (and or Hyundai and Genesis) as leaders in electric or electrified vehicles sales? Please leave any questions or comments below.

Images courtesy of Kia.

Justin Hart has owned and driven electric vehicles for over 15 years, including a first generation Nissan LEAF, second generation Chevy Volt, Tesla Model 3, an electric bicycle and most recently a Kia Sorento PHEV. He is also an avid SUP rider, poet, photographer and wine lover. He enjoys taking long EV and PHEV road trips to beautiful and serene places with the people he loves. Follow Justin on Torque News Kia or X for regular electric and hybrid news coverage.