Kia and the SME market
These are the three key areas that Kia will appeal to SMEs in 2016:
- New product launches: new Optima saloon, estate and plug-in hybrid; new Sportage; Kia Cee’d; plus all-new hybrid model
- Competitive dealer based contract hire offers
- Excellent after sales service underpinned by the Fleet Charter
KIA does make some head-turning cars – and the current Sportage is one of those. But with a new version coming out next year, and a full range of eco-friendly cars, John Hargreaves reckons Kia will be doing more business with SMEs in 2016.
I was talking to John following a briefing on their survey findings of SME company car managers (see story on the New Kia Optima plug-in hybrid), which placed appearance and environmental friendliness top of the buying agenda.
He said: “The SME sector is an area in which we can grow and offer the right sort of service to this thriving sector of the economy.
“We have a range of cars arriving in 2016 that we feel sits well with the desire – uncovered by our research – for environmentally friendly and good looking vehicles.”
Top of the list is the new Kia Optima saloon. This appears at the start of 2016 but for the first time there will also be an estate.
“We’re considering innovative ways of promoting this, such as the same contract hire rate for both the saloon and estate model,” says John.
As well as this there will be a plug-in hybrid version of the Optima, although we have no details yet about how low the CO2 emissions will be and the fuel economy.
The Sportage has always been an attractive car, but delivering such a headline rate will be a big hook for SMEs wanting smartness, practicality and low finance costs. Current Sportage starts from £165 a month – not much money for a lot of car.
Next up is the Kia Sportage SUV model. “This is a key model for us,” explains John. “From day one we will be targeting SME customers with a very competitive contract hire rate. As we’ve seen a big residual value uplift, the rate may even be the same or lower than the outgoing model.”
This will be some achievement for Kia. The Sportage has always been an attractive car, but delivering such a headline rate will be a big hook for SMEs wanting smartness, practicality and low finance costs. Current Sportage starts from £165 a month – not much money for a lot of car.
There is also the new Cee’d hatcchback and estate with a just launched small capacity turbo petrol engine. “It’s too early to say how this engine will do, but we expect it to appeal to lower mileage company car drivers,” said John.
Kia’s SME business push will be underpinned by its dealers, said John, Currently there are 23 Business Specialist Dealers, but John has plans to expand this to 30 in 2016.
“All our dealers can do business sales, but our specialist dealers have a dedicated business manager and a greater remit to penetrate the local business sector.
“In addition, we launched our Fleet Charter earlier this year, which – to be honest – standardised what our dealers were doing already. Namely focusing on quick turnaround of cars, availability of replacement vehicles during the servicing period and competitive servicing rates.
“So with our new products, competitive dealer based contract hire offers, and business after sales support, we’ll be in a good position to entice more SME customers over to the Kia brand.”
