James Kon
With its partnership with Grand Motors, the Korean carmaker Kia is looking to further expand its market share in Brunei Darussalam to become the number one car brand in the country.
The importance of Brunei market for Kia was underscored by Head of Sales Joey (Jungjoo) Hong from Kia Asia Pacific Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in an interview on the sideline of the launching ceremony of the new Kia showroom and unveiling of the all-new Sportage on Friday.
He said, “Kia currently has 20 per cent of market share in the Sultanate. This is an achievement that we can’t expect from any country around the world. Everywhere you go in Brunei Darussalam, you can see a Kia car. We look forward to further enhance our presence in the future”.
Describing the partnership between Kia and Grand Motors, he said, “It’s absolutely incredible.
Grand Motors has been a perfect partner over the years. We have been working with each other for more than 20 years now and Grand Motors is always very supportive to Kia and we are also very supportive to Grand Motors. Especially now every distributor is asking for more cars when there is a shortage of cars due to a limited supply of ships transporting cars.”
With continuous support, he hoped Kia will be the leading brand in Brunei automotive market in the coming years. On the appeal of Kia, he said “The design of Kia cars is absolutely bold and beautiful. We have also proven that Kia is the number one mass market brand in term of quality. Kia was ranked highest among mass market brands in JD Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study.
“The study determines long-term reliability by measuring the number of problems in three-year-old vehicles across nine major categories. This year’s study found that Kia vehicles received the best scores in vehicle dependability among mass market brands.”
Speaking on the new models from Kia, he shared that Grand Motors will introduce the new Kia Caren, a seven seaters MPV which is a perfect for big families.
He added, “We are also looking to introduce the Kia electric vehicle next year. We will discuss with Grand Motors to decide when will be the perfect time to introduce Kia EV. We have received feedback from customers who are eager to own Kia EV.”
