Take the Lead: Kia honours leading dealers and drives innovation at National Conference

• Kia sets out new business strategy for 2025: 'Take the Lead'

• 2024 Kia Dealer Excellence Awards announced at the brand's National Dealer Conference in Liverpool

• Second and third place for EMG (Cambridge) and EMG (Thetford) respectively

• New awards format introduces inaugural 'EV Excellence Award'

Kia UK has hosted its annual National Dealer Conference in Liverpool, recognising its best dealerships and setting a clear path for future business.

Attended by more than 1,000 Kia dealer staff and employees, the conference opened with a new mantra for the coming year: 'Take the Lead'. This phrase encapsulates what Kia has already achieved, as well as what it must continue to do to embrace the opportunities 2025 brings and meet the UK's wider transition towards electric vehicles.

Kia's ongoing success in the UK can be attributed to its pioneering and popular cars, but also its dealer partnerships that form the backbone of the business and which consistently provide a quality front-line service for customers.

Dealer Excellence Awards

The annual Kia Dealer Excellence Awards celebrate performance across the extensive network of 190 UK Kia dealerships. Award recipients earned praise for their extraordinary dedication across their businesses in the past 12 months, with the prestigious 'Dealer of the Year' Award going to the top dealership, with second and third place each receiving a 'Dealer Excellence Award' trophy. New this year is the 'EV Excellence Award' to better reflect the market's adoption of electric vehicles, alongside the 'Sales Excellence Award', 'After Sales Excellence Award' and 'Customer Experience Award'. For each category, there is one winner and a further nine Highly Commended dealerships.

The 2024 outright 'Dealer of the Year' was awarded to Mantles (Royston). The dealership further won an impressive three out of four awards for 'Sales Excellence', 'Customer Experience', and 'EV Excellence'. Mantles (Royston) is no stranger to Kia's Dealer Excellence Awards, having last year earned the number two place behind only three-time previous winner Gravells (Bridgend).

Second and third place went to EMG (Cambridge) and EMG (Thetford) respectively. These dealers further received 'Highly Commended' certificates across the 'Sales Excellence', 'After Sales Excellence' and 'EV Excellence' categories, showcasing their talents across a broad spectrum of the business.

The 2024 winner of the 'After Sales Excellence Award' was Gravells (Hereford). This dealership was previously the winner of the 2023 'Customer Experience Award' and this year received a 'Highly Commended' certificate in the same category, as well as for 'EV Excellence'.

'In 2024, Kia experienced record sales which is testament to the exceptional commitment of our dealers to our customers. Recognising their dedication and incredible achievements is a very proud moment for Kia UK,' commented Paul Philpott, President and CEO of Kia UK.

'As we celebrate this success, we are excited to look ahead. 2025 opens further opportunities for us and our dealer partners to take the lead with our brand. Kia is already well-positioned with Government regulations, with half of our vehicles sold being electrified models, and this year we embark on our first full sales year of the EV3 and a busy portfolio of more EV launches. With a clear strategy, continuous innovation and the unwavering support of our dealer network, I am confident that we will achieve even greater milestones. We are immensely proud of our dealer partnerships and the challenges we have and will continue to overcome together.'

2024 Kia Dealer Excellence Award winners:

2024 Dealer of the Year

1st Mantles (Royston)

2nd EMG (Cambridge)

3rd EMG (Thetford)

Sales Excellence Award

1st Mantles (Royston)

Highly Commended:

Arnold Clark (Cumbernauld)

Ashford Orbital

Burton Kia

EMG (Cambridge)

EMG (Kings Lynn)

EMG (Thetford)

Lloyd (Carlisle)

Piccadilly Motors (Knaresborough)

Shelly Motors (Epsom)

After Sales Excellence Award

1st Gravells (Hereford)

Highly Commended:

EMG (Cambridge)

EMG (Ely)

EMG (Thetford)

Flear & Thomson (Perth)

Gravells (Bridgend)

Gravells (Narberth)

Mantles (Royston)

Premier Automotive (Dukinfield)

Stoneacre (Grimsby)

Customer Experience Award

1st Mantles (Royston)

Highly Commended:

Brentwood Kia

Drayton Motors (Louth)

F J Chalke (Mere)

Gravells (Hereford)

Ken Jervis (Stoke-on-Trent)

Lloyd (Carlisle)

Perrys (Burnley)

Stoneacre (Wallasey)

Wessex (Cardiff)

EV Excellence Award

1st Mantles (Royston)

Highly Commended:

Boongate (Peterborough)

EMG (Cambridge)

EMG (Thetford)

Gravells (Hereford)

Group 1 (Coulsdon)

Howards (Weston Super Mare)

Ken Brown (Stevenage)

Lloyd (Carlisle)

Startin (Warwick)

Another record sales year

2024 was a bumper year of records for Kia, setting a new full year sales record with 112,252 new cars sold. Of these, 50% were electrified (EV, HEV, PHEV) models making Kia the second best-selling brand for electrified models across the year.

The Kia Sportage once again proved to be Kia's most popular model. The family SUV made up around 42% of Kia's total sales, thanks to its enduring appeal and range of efficient and electrified powertrains.

Adding to Kia's growing list of fully electric models, 2024 saw the launch of the EV3 – an all-electric compact SUV offering up to 375 miles1 of range per charge with the largest battery option. In addition, the popular and pioneering EV6 was refreshed, while new versions of Picanto and Sorento were also launched.

2025 and beyond

Kia has plans to strengthen its model line-up with the launch of more models in 2025. This will include the new EV6 GT, EV4 and EV5 fully electric models, as part of the company's journey to have launched nine fully electric cars in the UK by 2027 (starting from the EV6 in 2021). 2025 will also see the Kia PV5 launched, the brand's first fully electric van and Kia's re-entry into the light commercial vehicle market.

Photo credit: Kia
posted on conceptcarz.com

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