Sales of new Kia in Russia increased by 90% due to China

In the first quarter of 2026, 2,035 new Kia vehicles were registered in Russia. This is 90% more than in the same period last year, when 1,071 new cars of the Korean brand were sold. The growth was mainly driven by cars from China, which accounted for 60% of sales, Sergey Tselikov, director of the Autostat analytical agency, said in his Telegram channel on April 14.

Almost half of the demand (48%) was for the Kia Seltos compact crossover. 971 such cars were sold, sales of the model increased 3.5 times. As the expert explained, Seltos fits into the "pass-through" 160 hp and is supplied to the Russian Federation mainly from the Chinese market (94%).

The Kia Sportage mid-size crossover was in second place in popularity (22% in demand). Of the 442 units registered in Russia, more than half (56%) came from an assembly plant in Kazakhstan. A third of the Sportage is produced in China, and there are also Korean and Slovak copies in the import volume.

Russians also bought Kia K5 sedans (186 units) and K3 sedans (133 units), compact KX1 sedans (85 units), Carnival minivans (77 units) and Sorento crossovers (77 units).

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Why did Russians start actively buying cars

Yesterday it became known that 2.5 times more new German cars were sold in Russia in the first quarter of 2026 than in the same period last year. In total, almost 12.5 thousand brand cars from Germany were sold in January –March, compared to 4,887 units in the quarter a year earlier.

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