The Sportage is among Kia's best-selling models, helping to increase the brand's market share in Europe.
New-car sales in the Europe reached a historic low for the month of January as semiconductor shortages continued to hold back production.
Registrations in the EU, UK and EFTA markets fell 2.4 percent to 822,423 vehicles, data from industry association ACEA showed on Thursday.
It was the seventh consecutive month of falling sales, prolonging the industry’s worst stretch since the association started tracking the market in the early 1990s. The result marked a new historic low in EU car sales for the first month of the year, ACEA said.
Hyundai and Kia, which have weathered the chip shortage better than Europe-based automakers, bucked the downward trend by increasing sales and market share.
Combined Hyundai-Kia sales increased by 36 percent year-on-year, pushing market share up to 10.3 percent from 7.4 percent in January 2021.
Volkswagen Group, the region's top-selling automaker, saw sales decline by 3.7 percent, with the VW brand down 6.1 percent, Skoda down 5.5 percent and Seat down 19 percent. Porsche sales jumped 38 percent and Audi was up 8.8. percent as the group diverted microchips to profitable models.
Registrations at Stellantis, Europe's No. 2 automaker, fell 12 percent, with Fiat sales down 19 percent, Citroen down 17 percent, Peugeot down 14 percent and Opel/Vauxhall down 3.6 percent. The DS premium brand increase sales by 19 percent.
Renault Group sales fell by nearly 1 percent, with a 19 percent rise in Dacia's volume offsetting Renault brand's 13 percent drop.
Download European sales by automaker and brand for January 2022 as a PDF.
Among the worst performers for the month were Jaguar, with sales down 32 percent, Volvo and Seat, whose registrations each fell 20 percent and Nissan, down 18 percent,
Mazda had a good month with sales up 28 percent, as did Toyota brand, with registrations up 14 percent.
UK, Germany growth
Car sales were uneven across Europe’s biggest markets last month.
Registrations fell 20 percent in Italy and 19 percent in France, while they were up 28 percent in the UK and 8.5 percent in Germany.
Analysts and auto executives agree that the chip shortage will continue to impact the industry this year.
VW Group CEO Herbert Diess and other executives have signaled they see the chip supply improving in the second half of 2022, though few have offered specifics as to how the shortage will be resolved.
Speaking Wednesday, Diess said VW has introduced an early-warning system on chips, and its engineers have identified some 150 technology alternatives to replace missing semiconductors.
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report
