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The Kia Sportage family SUV is expected to beat its 2022 record sales total in 2024 – and in doing so, it could overtake the Mazda CX-5.
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The Kia Sportage has set a monthly sales record in Australia in October 2024, with the family SUV on track to beat its best-ever full-year total from 2022.
VFACTS new-car sales data released this week shows 2136 examples of the Kia Sportage were registered in October 2024, surpassing its previous record of 2114 vehicles set in March 2024.
It was ahead of its competitors in seventh, eighth and ninth position, the Mitsubishi Outlander (1901), Mazda CX-5 (1833), and its Hyundai Tucson twin-under-the-skin (1803).
Year-to-date, Kia has sold 18,231 examples of the Sportage – up 44 per cent over the same time in 2023.
In 2022, Kia sold 18,792 Sportages in Australia in the first full year of the current model, before stock shortages and extended wait times contributed to a 16.2 per cent decline in 2023 with 15,747 sales.
The Sportage is now 561 units away from beating its Australian sales record with sales in November 2024 and December 2024 still to be counted.
A Kia Australia spokesperson attributed the increased sales to the broad powertrain options in the Sportage line-up.
“The Sportage range provides new car buyers with a choice of petrol, diesel and now hybrid powertrain options – a Sportage to suit every medium SUV customer,” said the spokesperson.
The Sportage Hybrid arrived in Australia earlier this year as a rival to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, initially available in front-wheel-drive SX and GT-Line trims.
Based on the current 44 per cent increase in its year-to-date sales, Kia Australia could potentially register around 23,000 Sportages by the end of 2024, placing it close to the Mazda CX-5.
The Mazda CX-5 – first launched in 2011 – was the best-selling mid-size SUV in Australia for several years.
However the CX-5 was overtaken by the Toyota RAV4 after the current hybrid-focused model launched in 2019, with the RAV4 now holding a significant share of the medium SUV under $60,000 segment.
More recently, the Mitsubishi Outlander has also proven popular with buyers, with the CX-5 slipping into third place year-to-date with 19,510 sales – a 0.5 per cent increase over 2023.
If this increase remains consistent in November and December, Mazda will also be on track to sell around 23,000 examples of the CX-5 in Australia in 2024, placing both models neck-and-neck in the sales race.
Hybrid power is expected to remain available in Australia but it remains to be seen if it will follow its Hyundai Tucson twin in ditching diesel engines.
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Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
