Cracking the top three? Kia poised for a podium sales spot as it races with Ford and Mazda to join Toyota as a top three brand in Australia

Kia is expecting to sell 90,000 new cars in Australia this year.

If you’ve followed the rise of Kia lately, this probably seems like a pretty reasonable expectation, but when you look at how the first quarter of the year is going after the sales results from last year, there’s another question that comes to mind: Will Kia be a top three brand for sales this year in Australia?

Starting with 2024’s annual results, of course Toyota’s 241,296 new cars sold (a 19.8 per cent market share) sits it well in the lead, with daylight behind.

Ford reported 100,170 sales (up an impressive 14.1 per cent on 2023), Mazda had 95,987 (4.0 per cent down) with Kia just missing out on the podium at 81,787 (7.4 per cent up).

Mitsubishi (74,547) and Hyundai (71,664) were just behind, but the first quarter of the year 2025 has things all shook up.

Behind Toyota (already at 57,797, a figure most brands could only dream of annually), Mazda is sitting uncomfortably in second with 25,119, Ford is rocking 21,399 so far this year, while Kia (19,734), Mitsubishi (19,065) and Hyundai (18,286) tussle behind.

Kia’s expectation of 90,000 for the year comes not after having already seen the first-quarter results, but from before the new year. Kia Australia’s Chief Executive Officer Damien Meredith told CarsGuide it was the expectation at the Kia K4 launch during the Australian Open in January.

Now that it’s been a couple of months, we asked at the launch of the Kia EV3 in late March: Could Kia become a podium-sitter in terms of sales figures in Australia?

“We were number three last month,” Meredith said.

“But it doesn’t consume us. Whether we're number four, number five or number three, people used to ask that question when we were number 12 - will we be in the top 10?

“Well it would be nice, but it doesn’t consume us.

“So you know, we've never sent out a press release saying, ‘guess what, we’re number four. Number three, or whatever.

“The competition in that two, three, four, five, six and maybe even seven, is really quite close. It happened to us last year, one minute we were third and then we were seventh.

“I wasn’t really happy about being seventh, but it's just the way it is. The way of the markets.

“The way logistics is now, it's pretty difficult to get a continuum of product into market at the right time, to keep your consistency going.”

It’s not far enough into the year yet to see if Kia can climb to sit on the podium behind Toyota and (likely) Ford but the signs are good, and there’s more to come.

Kia’s just-launched EV3 electric car should add at least a couple of thousand sales to its total, the brand expecting annual sales of around 4000 units. The EV5 mid-size electric SUV also has a full year ahead with annual sales predicted at up to 6000 by Kia, plus the Tasman launches mid-year and should nudge (or perhaps cross) half of its 20,000-unit sales expectation.

While some of these sales will be from people who may have bought a Kia anyway, having what should be well over 10,000 extra sales from new models will help Kia continue to grow.

Not only is Kia performing at a level to compete for the podium overall, but its electric car offering has matured to the point where it’s also one of the top brands for electric cars in Australia in terms of volume after Tesla, BYD and MG.

Across Kia’s EV range comprising of EV3, 5, 6, and 9, the brand has sold 1611 cars in the first quarter of 2025 alone, with 767 of those in March. Given Kia sold 7307 cars in March overall, this puts its EV sales above 10 per cent of its total.

“Moving forward, once we bed EV3 in we’ll only grow from there. We might end up on the podium, but we’re fourth in ranking out of all the EVs.” Meredith said.

For Kia to overtake Mazda, the electric car element is crucial. The brand said it expects to sell around 11,000 electric cars for 2025 across its ‘EVx’ range.

Mazda’s dip last year can’t be relied upon to repeat, though, with a refreshed BT-50 ute, the complete quartet of large SUVs (CX-60, -70, -80 and -90), plus a possible new CX-5 by the year’s end. So far this year, Mazda is up 5.7 per cent.

Finally, there’s the elephant in the room - Kia once has a closely fought battle in terms of sales figures with its sibling brand Hyundai, but Kia has pulled away into the lead.

“People sort of laugh at this but I really think about the success of the group in Australia,” Meredith said.

“So if we're doing 90,000… then Hyundai, let's say they do - they did 71 last year - they do 80. So that's 170,000 cars that the group’s done.

“That's in effect number two.”

Put it however you like, but Kia’s rise from an emerging brand is impressive, alongside Hyundai of course. 

Many years ago, to say it could compete with Toyota, Ford and Mazda would have been laughable, but today, it’s poised to join them in the podium fight.