Kia PV5 Passenger is a surprising sales sensation
New PV5 people carrier is proving more popular than expected in less versatile form
Kia has been taken aback by demand for its new five-seat PV5 people carrier, with the firm previously anticipating that more people would hang on for the seven-seat version arriving towards the end of this year.
“We always expected the seven-seat to be more popular, the five-seat has surprised us,” Kia UK managing director Paul Philpott told Auto Express. “We always said the seven-seat would significantly outsell the five-seat, now we’re expecting something more like 60:40 in favour of the seven-seat, much tighter than we originally thought.”
Philpott said the PV5’s overall demand has been ahead of expectations, with more than 1,000 five-seaters sold, on top of around 2,750 PV5 van sales since launch late last year.
The seven-seater is due to join the line-up in November, sacrificing some of the huge load area to fit an extra couple of seats in the back. “If you're a family with three kids, the five-seater is perfect – all that cargo space for everything that comes with three children,” said Philpott. “If you need to transport people, the seven-seater has clear benefits, but it doesn't have the same cargo capacity.”
Although pricing is still to be confirmed, VW’s ID. Buzz seven-seater, which costs less than £1,000 over the five-seat version, is a good benchmark. That would put the PV5 with extra passenger capacity at a starting point of around £34,000.
The PV5 will be supplemented by PV7 and PV9 models in the coming years, with the PV7 coming in van form during the second half of next year and seven-seat passenger MPV following soon afterwards.
But one thing not due imminently is an official campervan conversion for the PV5. Although it was talked about previously, Philpott said it’s “not something we would prioritise in the short term”. However, several aftermarket conversion specialists are looking at the PV5.
Kia’s UK boss also ruled out the company introducing a van smaller than the PV5, with no plans to take on the likes of Citroen's Berlingo and the Volkswagen Caddy in the UK.
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