Kia emerges as Europe’s fastest-growing top 10 car brand after EV sales surge 58% — SkimNews
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- Kia recorded 377,078 European passenger car registrations between January and August 2026, a 9% year-on-year increase that made it Europe's fastest-growing top 10 brand, according to ACEA.
- Kia's EV registrations surged 58% year-on-year through August, lifting its share of the European EV market to 4.8% and ranking it seventh overall in EVs.
- Kia's overall European passenger car market share reached 4.1% through August, placing the brand ninth overall and outpacing the broader market's 5.8% growth.
- Kia posted triple-digit growth in two of Europe's largest markets, with France up 120% and Germany up 112%, followed by the UK (+66%), Spain (+60%), and Italy (+41%).
- Kia's EV lineup now spans the EV2, EV3, EV4, EV5, EV6, and EV9 plus the PV5 van, with the entry-level EV2 launched earlier this year starting at €26,600 in Germany and £22,245 in the UK.
- Kia builds both the EV2 and EV4 at its Slovakia manufacturing plant, though it has no plans to bring the EV2 to the US, where the EV3 is already on sale.
- Sjoerd Knipping, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Europe, attributed the brand's "outstanding performance" to having "one of the broadest and most advanced electrified line-ups in Europe."
Why it matters: Kia's 58% EV registration surge and outperformance against a 5.8% market lift it into the top tier of Europe's electrified transition, with triple-digit growth in France and Germany suggesting legacy European rivals are losing ground to a Korean brand betting early on a full-EV lineup.
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