Kia has been accused of pulling a shady transfer by stockpiling new Kias in a storage lot in Ontario and leaving Canadian clients out to dry – some have stated they’ve waited months, even years for his or her new Kia. The rationale? Kia doesn’t need to look too good.

It’s all a part of Kia’s technique to keep away from wanting “too profitable” and shedding its advertising finances, in response to video footage attained by CBC. Kia Canada opted to stash its stock of latest automobiles in Ontario and wait out the brand new 12 months, all in an effort to play the numbers sport, in response to the report.

In CBC’s report, a November 17 video reveals Kia regional gross sales supervisor Vince Capicotto telling representatives from some 100 dealerships that Kia Canada had already hit its gross sales goal of promoting 84,000 automobiles for the 12 months, so there was no level in going overboard: “Kia Canada needs to regulate wholesale and retail efficiency in 2023 to not present excessive over-achievement.” Doing so, he stated, would possibly put their advertising finances in danger in 2024.

Due to this fact, the decision was made to place a freeze on the stock till 2024, with solely a sprinkling of latest automobiles being shipped to supplier heaps till the top of 2023.

Clearly, Kia consumers are outraged, and sellers say they too are scrambling to answer buyer calls, with some canceling their orders.

Kia buyer Brian Olmstead instructed CBC that he had been ready for his new Kia EV6 since 2022. “I’ve been ready for a automotive for a 12 months and a half and so they’re holding them on a compound simply to make the gross sales look decrease? What the hell?… That is so disappointing. What they’re doing is incorrect.”

Simply how a lot this debacle will harm the model’s repute in Canada is but to be decided. Kia hasn’t but commented on the state of affairs, saying that it could’t touch upon “confidential inner enterprise issues,” in response to CBC. Nonetheless, Kia is thought for having among the longest wait instances within the trade in Canada, Shari Prymak, a senior guide with Automobile Assist Canada, instructed CBC.