Kia Sorento won the 1st place in January-April this year..The reason why it's so popular
May 09, 2025
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Among them, the Kia Sorento, the undisputed No. 1 vehicle, is particularly eye-catching. It is surprising that the company surpassed 30,000 units sold alone in January-April this year, widening the gap with the second-place Carnival, but it has maintained its unwavering No. 1 position by beating all competing new cars that debuted later.
The Sorento is Kia's midsize SUV, a fourth-generation model that debuted in 2020. The model currently on sale is the 4th generation facelift model, which was released in August 2023.The first-generation model, which emerged in the 1990s, applied the 'body-on-frame' type.
At the time, Hyundai Motor's Santa Fe was far ahead in ride comfort by applying Unibody. The first-generation Sorento has secured quite a few enthusiasts, but it has fallen short of the sales volume of its rival Santa Fe. Since Hyundai acquired Kia, a second-generation model has been released, and like Santa Fe, Unibody has adopted a front-wheel drive method. It's become a true sibling sharing a platform with Santa Fe.
As it became more popular, sales improved, and sometimes outpaced Santa Fe sales in domestic and international markets. In the fourth generation, it continued to surpass sales of its rival Santa Fe, eventually solidifying its No. 1 position in the class.
Santa Fe, a desperate company, announced its fifth-generation full-change model in August 23. In the meantime, it is expected to surpass Sorento's popularity by taking the upper hand in some options. It was the root of the fire that applied a maniacal design based on the angular body. Even though it was a new full-change car, it did not exceed the sales volume of Sorento.
In September 24, Renault Korea announced the mid-size SUV Grand Corleos. The hybrid technology of China's geographical car and Renault design combined to draw a good response. Despite such a prominent competitive vehicle, Sorento has maintained its No. 1 position in the class this year as well as in all domestic vehicles.
There are two main reasons. The first is that various options are available at a reasonable price.
Sorento has a total of three power trains: 2.5 turbo gasoline and 1.6 turbo hybrid, and 2.2 diesel powertrain. This is the difference from the two power trains prepared by rival Santa Fe and Grand Corleos, excluding diesel. Here, two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive for each power train can also be selected.
The Santa Fe, a sibling vehicle, has the same hybrid driving method as gasoline, except for the absence of diesel. In the case of Grand Corleos, gasoline can only be chosen for all-wheel drive in the top-end model.Hybrid models can only be selected for two-wheel drive.
In addition, Sorento is an option for three seat configurations after selecting three power trains and two driving methods. It can be added up to three rows, so you can choose between 5, 6, and 7 seats according to consumer preference.
In the case of Grand Coleos, which has recently been rapidly increasing in popularity, there are only five seats without three rows at all.Apart from the completeness of the vehicle, there are restrictions on the choice.
In this way, the most diverse power train, driving method, and seat composition among the same class can satisfy multiple consumers. Based on these points, we were able to maintain our unwavering No. 1 position.
The second is the design. As pointed out earlier, Santa Fe was a sibling vehicle from the same group of companies that debuted later than Sorento, so it launched with an edge in some specifications.
A typical example is lane keeping assistance 2 and direct grip sensing steering wheel. All specifications are applied to Santa Fe by default, but Sorento is not. Nevertheless, design is the reason why Sorento is ahead of Santa Fe's sales.
Sorento's design response has been hot since the early 4th generation model launched in 2020. The grill and horizontal headlights featuring Tiger Nose gave a neat and solid image, and favorable reviews were mainly received from the side and the back.
This favorable design led to sales volume.Sales of the two models began to gradually widen as the fourth-generation Santa Fe received harsh design criticism after the facelift.
The 5th generation Santa Fe applied a completely different design language from the previous generation based on the box-shaped body that emphasized practicality to overcome the existing harsh criticism. Unlike getting a good response in the North American market, there are many likes and dislikes in Korea.
Although enthusiasts were also formed due to the strong design, the demand for choosing Sorento has also increased due to discontent with Santa Fe's angular design.
Sorento added a more futuristic image through a vertical lamp to his existing hard image through a successful facelift in August 23. It consistently maintained high sales volume along with a good evaluation of the interior, which has been transformed into a simple design.
Sorento ranks first in the domestic market overwhelmingly, but it also shows improvements. First of all, the speed of development of hybrid power trains by competing vehicles is fast. In the case of Grand Corleos, there are only five seats and the sunroof is not available for selection. Despite various shortcomings, such as the hybrid all-wheel drive member in Yagi, it has recorded high sales of more than 5,000 units per month.
The reason is that a two-motor hybrid system that is evaluated to be a step forward from the hybrid of Sorento and Santa Fe is applied. The driving motor and the power generation motor were separated, so the driving time of the motor increased dramatically when driving in the city center. Even when switching engine driving, it is much smoother, so satisfaction is high after a test drive. Sales are steadily increasing as this part has gone viral.
As Hyundai Motor Group has also developed a next-generation hybrid system, it seems necessary to introduce an advanced hybrid system in order for Sorento to remain the top seller in the future. In addition, functions that are very useful for actual use, such as lane keeping assist 2 and capacitive steering wheels, which are only applied to Santa Fe, should also be applied.
Continued challenges from competing vehicles and Chinese automation SUVs will appear one after another in the future. Attention is focusing on whether Sorento will continue to maintain high sales in the future market.
Editor Song Moon-cheol mc.song@carguy.kr
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
