AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/24 Report--

According to the latest financial report released on the official website of South Korea's Kia Motor Company, during the reporting period, Kia Motor Company achieved operating income of 49.93 trillion won, an increase of 7.7% over the same period last year, an operating profit of 7.07 trillion won, an increase of 12.6% over the same period last year, and a net profit of 5.77 trillion won, an increase of 16.8% over the same period last year.

It is worth mentioning that as a joint venture in China, Jiangsu Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. is still insolvent, with total assets of 2.52 trillion won and liabilities of 3.45 trillion won as of June 30, 2024. According to this calculation, Jiangsu Yueda Kia's asset-liability ratio reached 137%. Although the situation in Yueda Kia is improving, its debt ratio remains high, at 119% as of December 31, 2023 and 139% as of March 31, 2024. For reference, the debt ratio of GAC-Mitsubishi, which has been delisted, is 99%, and that of GAC Fick is 111%. In addition, according to the financial report, Yueda Kia had an operating loss of 27.789 billion won and a net loss of 17.182 billion won in the first half of 2024.

Domestic sales of Yueda Kia were 64685 in the first 10 months of 2024, down 6.0 per cent from 68875 in the same period in 2023, according to retail data. In order to reverse the disadvantage, Kia has to turn to the global market and sell models made in China overseas in order to achieve high year-on-year growth. The latest figures show that Yueda Kia exported 136368 vehicles in the first 10 months of 2024, with an average monthly sales of more than 10,000 vehicles, nearly double the domestic sales, and has become an important source of Yueda Kia sales. In other words, although Yueda Kia's sales in the first 10 months of 2024 have exceeded that of 2023, it is not because domestic consumers have increased demand for Kia, but because most of its production capacity has been transferred to overseas markets. This phenomenon of "blooming inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall" is actually rare in joint ventures.

According to the official website, there are 11 models currently on sale at Yueda Kia, including sedan K5, K3, Huanchi, SUV Sonai, Seatus, Lion Platinum expansion, Zhirun, MPV Jiahua, new energy vehicles EV5, EV6 (imported). Retail data show that the model with the highest sales in the first 10 months of 2024 was the Freddy, which sold 15402 vehicles, but the model has been suspended from production and sales and is in a state of inventory clearance, followed by Satus and Lion Platinum, with 13015 and 10068 respectively. Other models are less than 10,000. In terms of exports, Yueda Kia mainly exports low-cost models, with Huanchi as the first export volume, with 47645 vehicles, followed by Sonai and Setus with 36840 and 32288 vehicles, and Lionel Platinum with 10555 vehicles.

In the Chinese market, Kia is basically a forgotten joint venture brand, which is not as popular as Germany and Japan in the era of traditional fuel cars, and Kia has not yet launched competitive models in the wave of new energy in the Chinese car market. Of course, it doesn't seem important to Yang Honghai, chief operating officer of Kia China, whether he can do well in the Chinese market. 'in the Chinese market, our goal is not to pursue industry rankings, but to serve users well, 'Yang Honghai said in an interview at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show.

In the field of traditional fuel vehicles, the market share of German, Japanese and American mainstream brands is constantly being compressed, and the market space of Korean brands is more narrow, on the one hand, it is difficult to compete with mainstream joint venture brands, on the other hand, it faces the suppression of independent brands of new energy vehicles. At the present stage, the domestic new energy market is extremely fierce. under the fierce offensive of independent brands represented by BYD, the market share of joint venture brands is declining day by day, and "mouthful price" has become the most direct means for them to stay in the market. At present, Yueda Kia does not play much role in new energy vehicles, and the first domestic pure electric compact SUV EV5 does not have much sense of existence. Among the compact pure electric SUV launched by Volkswagen, Honda, Nissan and other joint venture brands, only the Volkswagen ID.4 series can sell more than 1,000 vehicles a month at a substantial discount, while no one is interested in other joint venture models even if their prices are greatly reduced. In the next few years, thanks to the pull of the global market, Yueda Kia's sales may continue to maintain stability or growth, and exports may become the main line of Yueda Kia's business for a long time.

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