Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that in the first half of this year, domestic passenger car retail sales accumulated 8.75 million vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 20%; the fuel vehicle market encountered an "avalanche", with June retail sales plummeting 39%. The "price war" ran throughout the year, significantly compressing industry profit margins.

Amid widespread gloom, a car company submitted a "different" performance report: June sales reached 257,900 vehicles, a 15.8% month-on-month increase and 11% year-on-year increase, breaking through 20,000 vehicles monthly for 3 consecutive months; cumulative deliveries in the first half reached 118,100 vehicles, achieving both year-on-year and month-on-month growth for 2 consecutive months. It is not a new force, nor a local independent brand, but Yueda Kia.

If we elevate our focus to a global dimension, Kia's market performance is even more shocking. In the first half of 2026, Kia's global cumulative sales reached 1.631 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%, setting a new high for the first half of the year. Among them, Sportage and Seltos ranked first and second globally with 303,200 and 177,200 vehicles respectively.

Global Quality: Entering an Upward Channel

On one side is the high-singing march in the global market, on the other is the counter-attack in the Chinese market. Nowadays, Yueda Kia has already changed its thinking mode: through measures such as strengthening brand image, improving product competitiveness, expanding service channels, and optimizing user experience, showing a steady development momentum and strong corporate resilience.

In the first half of this year, Yueda Kia was the first to launch a nationwide "One-Price" car purchase policy, returning pricing power to the brand so that consumers can enjoy the bottom price upon entering the store. Taking the new Kia Sportage with global cumulative sales exceeding 8 million vehicles as an example, the "One-Price" launched in April is as low as 109,900 RMB, and the main selling model 1.5T Prestige Edition "One-Price" is only 124,900 RMB.

In addition, multiple benefits such as fuel card subsidies and purchase tax reductions have also been implemented. In return for Chinese consumers with super-value car purchase plans, Yueda Kia has effectively lowered the threshold for car purchase, making prices more transparent. Benefiting from this, the sales of multiple star models of Yueda Kia increased significantly compared to the same period last year, which also confirms the effectiveness of its nationwide "One-Price" strategy.

It is worth mentioning that the new Kia Sportage, inheriting the 33-year history and 5 generations of "Sportage", has realized 13 configuration upgrades compared to the old model in terms of styling design, space experience, smart technology, safety configuration, etc., further meeting Chinese users' needs for more comfortable and smarter travel.

Even more surprisingly, after launching for more than 100 days, the new Kia Sportage has "zero customer complaints" on new car quality. This is not relying on luck, but the power of quality control, fully confirming Yueda Kia's excellent product quality, while also highlighting Yueda Kia's third factory's globally leading manufacturing standards and quality control strength.

As a global core production base of Kia, Yueda Kia's third factory fully benchmarks against international first-class manufacturing standards, introducing advanced tools such as Kia Global Quality Management System (GQMS), MES manufacturing execution system, IQIS production completion system, etc., building a lifecycle quality management system covering R&D, manufacturing to after-sales.

"Global Quality" is the standard carved into every screw nut of Yueda Kia: using high quality, high intelligence, and high value to respond to Chinese users' diverse expectations for quality travel; relying on the globally unified R&D and manufacturing system and rigorous verification processes, letting domestic and overseas consumers share identical car-building strength.

Dual Drive: Running a Growth Curve

Domestic sales and export sales moving forward side by side is the main theme of Yueda Kia's development in the first half of this year. As of now, Yueda Kia has exported over 617,000 vehicles in cumulative, export sales exceeding 6.79 billion US dollars, building an export matrix composed of EV5, Sportage, Seltos, K5, Sonet, and Rio, covering 91 countries and regions including Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Engine exports were also accomplished with remarkable achievements. In June 2026, Yueda Kia exported 7,491 engines, accumulating exports of about 531,000 units, mainly sold to countries such as Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, etc.

Domestic sales stabilizing the basic block, exports opening the ceiling, this "Dual Drive" pattern can not only hedge against the price war competition pressure in the domestic existing market but also rely on scaled exports to reduce manufacturing costs, forming a steady growth loop of internal and external markets feeding each other and risk dispersion, becoming the core confidence of Yueda Kia's counter-trend racing.

In addition to holding the two growth curves of domestic stock deep cultivation and global incremental blue ocean, Yueda Kia also has remarkable achievements in channel ecosystem construction. On one hand, continuously deepening cooperation with large dealer groups represented by United Crown, Lan Chi, Jiangsu Zhixing, Guoao, Zhongchi, etc.; on the other hand, continuously strengthening the service network and promoting the downscaling of standard services.

In the first half of this year, amidst an environment of fierce price wars and continuous news of dealer network exits, Yueda Kia added 28 outlets, especially the first global SI 2.0 standard flagship store built in Guangxi with Changle Group in April, which filled the blank of high-quality travel services in the Guangxi region.

Healthy channels are the foundation of Yueda Kia's sustainable growth; while improvement in service is also one of the decisive battlefields. In the first half of this year, Yueda Kia continuously optimized the pre-sales, during-sales, and after-sales full-stage service ecosystem. In pre-sales and during-sales links, focusing on optimizing customer experience around key touchpoints such as store arrival experience, trial ride, and signing delivery; in the after-sales link, mainly focusing on service management system upgrade, service quality control optimization, service facility implementation, improving service experience.

Sports Marketing: Localization Emotional Connection

Looking at Kia's sports marketing, it exactly forms a subtle mirror echo with its domestic and foreign sales dual-wheel drive logic. In 2026, the 2026 USA-Canada-Mexico World Cup is in full swing. As an official partner cooperating with FIFA for nearly 20 years, Kia sponsored 660 operating vehicles for this event.

In addition, it also brought a series of "World Cup Joint Gifts" for Chinese consumers, and provided purchase tax subsidies and oil card/electric card gifts, etc., for the 3 "One-Price" models New Sportage, K3, and Kia Xing, showing full sincerity for Chinese consumers. This move directly converts sports heat into store traffic, making the whole chain natural.

It is worth mentioning that as a FIFA partner for 20 years, Kia has the exclusive right to select official ball boy ball girls globally. In the knockout stages of this 2026 USA-Canada-Mexico World Cup, 11-year-old girl Liu Shuying appeared as the only Chinese official ball boy/girl, becoming a vivid vignette of Kia opening up global sports resources and building a bridge for cultural exchange between Chinese and foreign teenagers.

Global IP is not label-style sponsorship, but perceivable rights implementation. The moment Kia precisely lands this scarce right of ball boy selection on Chinese people, it completes the identity translation from sponsor to dream maker, letting consumers feel the temperature of the brand.

In addition to integrating global top-tier event resources, Yueda Kia also actively cultivates China's local sports events. To date, Yueda Kia has sponsored Yancheng Marathon for 6 consecutive years and been the main sponsor of the "Jiangsu Super League" Yancheng team for 2 consecutive years, extending the brand temperature to every participant inside and outside the arena.

Local events are not participation in the form of making up numbers, but emotional anchors of regional deep cultivation. As the base of Yueda Kia, Yancheng, the essence of deep cultivation of local events is doing "Community Brand Assets", thereby realizing localization emotional connection.

Epilogue: Waiting for the Wind, Better to Be the Wind

In the first half of 2026, the Chinese auto market's cold air was chilling, but Yueda Kia told the industry with a performance report of "concurrent year-on-year and month-on-month double growth": true long-termism is not waiting for the wind, but becoming the wind.

From the record half-year sales of 1.631 million vehicles globally to the counter-attack in the Chinese market; from the nationwide "One-Price" reshaping consumer trust to export business opening the growth ceiling; from the manufacturing heritage of global quality to the worry-free service experience of the full cycle - Yueda Kia's combination of these sets of moves supports the enterprise to walk out of the trough and build a solid growth chassis.

Deeply cultivated the Chinese market for 24 years, Yueda Kia has accumulated trust from over 6.85 million users. In the future, Yueda Kia will continue to refine in dimensions such as brand value, product quality, channel network, service experience, etc., bringing travel experiences far beyond expectations to more Chinese consumers.