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Hyundai, Kia ratchet up fleet sales as retail transactions slide

Automotive News reports both Hyundai and Kia have stepped up fleet sales in an attempt to offset disappointing first quarter results. The Korean automakers saw their sales decline by nine percent compared to last year, while all major competitors managed to increase their sales. That situation marks an inversion of two years ago, when both gained ground after Japanese rivals suffered production and inventory shortages after the country's earthquake and tsunami tragedies.
Now, Hyundai can't come up with enough volume models in popular trim configurations to satisfy buyers, and lower-volume models are also in a snag. At the moment, Hyundai can only build 20-30 percent of Veloster hatchbacks with turbocharged engines while the US market would apparently support closer to 70 percent.
In order to reverse the sales slide, Hyundai and Kia have stepped up fleet sales of the vehicles they do have by some 50 percent, ringing up a total of 42,400 units in the first quarter. By contrast, Automotive News reports the seven largest automakers increased retail volume by seven percent and fleet sales by four percent as a group.

Kia continues run of Soul special editions with Red Zone

The 2014 Soul has come on strong since its introduction, going so far as to become the Korean automaker's top-selling model last month, but Kia isn't wasting any time in creating a little extra excitement for its boxy hatchback. Although the name is a little wonky, the Kia Soul Red Zone marks the first special-edition model for the second-gen Soul, and its styling is meant to mimic the 2012 Track'ster Concept, the showcar that inspired the design of the 2014 Soul.
While there's no pigskin or AstroTurf (or any other football-related references) to be found on this car, the Red Zone package consists of a distinctive white paint scheme with bright red accents. The red theme continues on the inside with contrast stitching and piping acting as highlights to the otherwise all-black interior. The 2014 Soul Red Zone goes on sale early next year, and while official pricing has not been announced, production will be limited to just 2,000 units.

Kia builds one millionth vehicle in the US

Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. (KMMG), the plant that produces the Kia Sorento crossover and Optima sedan, celebrated today as a Snow White Pearl 2014 Sorento SXL rolled off the assembly line at the 2,259-acre site, marking the one-millionth Kia to be produced on US soil.
Located in West Point, Georgia, KMMG was Kia Motors America's first manufacturing plant in the US and represented an initial investment of $1 billion. The plant started producing the 2011 Sorento on November 16, 2009 and is responsible for the creation of 11,000 jobs in West Point and the surrounding region. Production of the Optima sedan, Kia's best-selling car in the US for the past 18 months, started at the factory in 2011, and, in 2012, the completion of a $100 million expansion upped annual vehicle production capacity to 360,000.
"Building one million vehicles in less than four years is a tremendous achievement and one that each one of our more than 3,000 team members can take great pride in," said Byung Mo Ahn, Group President and CEO for Kia Motors America and KMMG.