Image Source: Kia of Port Charlotte
Kia Corporation announced record-breaking first-quarter results for 2025, driven by strong interest in hybrid vehicle and high-value model sales. Quoting from Kia, the global sales volume for the first quarter was Kia's highest ever in the history of the company, with 772,648 vehicles sold, an increase of 1.6% from one year ago. Revenue for the first quarter also increased by 6.9% to 28.02 trillion won, which was the company's best quarterly result to date.
Sales of electrified vehicles (which encompasses hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles) increased by 10.7% to 174,000 units, amounting to approximately 23.1% of nine total sales. The leader was hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) with 104,000 units, a 10.6% increase. Populations of these vehicles sold well in North America and India, producing significant hybrid sales, and with new SUVs like the Syros launching during this time.
Despite the record revenue, Kia reported an operating profit decline of 12.2% to 3.01 trillion won, mainly caused by additional incentives offered to customers, and also by temporarily lowering the high-margin electric SUV sales as their production was moving to the United States. Nonetheless, Kia maintained a double-digit operating margin for the tenth consecutive quarter, significantly above industry averages.
Looking forward, Kia will deepen its hybrid line-up with the new versions of Sportage, Carnival and Sorento, to deemphasize more hybrids that may emerge in the years ahead, where consumers put more emphasis on eco-friendliness. Kia plans to increase its local production of flagship electric vehicles, in the United States, to account for newly imposed tariffs.
Kia expects challenging environments to continue with global economic uncertainty and competition intensifying. Kia intends to ramp up production and also deploy incentives to protect profit margins and drive growth.
Source: Kia News Center
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