Kia has included the Russian market in its sales plan for 2025

Kia has updated its car sales plan for 2025 to include the Russian market. According to the Korean Yonhap news agency, it contains a mention of 50 thousand Kia cars, which are expected to be sold by the end of this year.

As for other markets, the company intends to sell 1.11 million vehicles in North America, 774 thousand units in Europe, 580 thousand units in South Korea, and 400 thousand units in India. The company's business strategy has been adjusted to take into account the international situation, in which the prospects for ending the conflict in Ukraine have been growing since the inauguration of Donald Trump in the United States.

"Russia's share, which was not taken into account in last year's medium- and long-term goals, is again included in this year's version of the plan... The return to the Russian market is expected to have a positive impact in terms of market diversification amid growing global uncertainty," the note says.

According to Daniil Shkurygin, commercial director of <url>, Kia's plans for car sales in Russia cannot be considered a full-fledged return of the brand. 50,000 cars per year is only a quarter of the previous sales volumes achieved by 2022, Shkurygin told Izvestia.

"The only option for the production of the declared volume may be Kaliningrad Avtotor, but its production facilities are already occupied, and even for such a small volume of cars they are not enough. Considering that Kia is completing the construction of a new enterprise in Kazakhstan, the manufacturer probably plans to import cars from there," the expert suggested.

Such modest plans confirm that it will take a long time to restore the positions of foreign automakers in the Russian market: at least a couple of years, and possibly even longer. Thus, it is better to consider this stage of Kia's return as a testing of the presence format rather than as a full-fledged return of the brand, Shkurygin emphasized.

Time machines: foreign car brands may return to the Russian Federation

However, experts predict a general increase in prices in the car market

On April 9, the ex-Hyundai plant in Russia revealed the results of its work at the beginning of the year. In the first quarter of 2025, 8.7 thousand Solaris brand cars were produced at the AGR Automobile Plant in St. Petersburg. These are renamed Hyundai and Kia, which are produced in full cycle mode. The model range includes HC crossovers (Hyundai Creta), KRS sedan (Kia Rio), KRX cross hatchback (Kia Rio X) and HS sedan (Hyundai Solaris).

On March 28, it was reported that the St. Petersburg Automobile Plant AGR (formerly Hyundai Motor) has produced 30 thousand cars of the Russian brand Solaris since the restart of the enterprise in February last year. The Solaris KRX has become an anniversary.