Kazakhstan March 2014: Kia Rio and Nissan Qashqai in Top 5

Kia Rio

* See the Top 30 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Thanks Irina *

The Kazakh new car market is back to explosive growth in March at +34% year-on-year to 12,647 registrations, bringing the First Quarter total to a record 34,474 units, up 25% on 2013. The models ranking is back to a little bit of normalcy with the Lada Priora reclaiming the top spot it also holds year-to-date thanks to 1,215 sales and 9.6% share adding up to 3,305 units so far in 2014. However the Hyundai Accent is catching up at a mammoth +149% to rank #2 at 985 units and 7.8% vs. 6.4% year-to-date… Korean carmakers are in great shape this month: the Kia Rio up to a fantastic #4 spot with sales up 277% and the Kia Sportage up a huge 577% to stop just short off a Top 10 spot at #11. In runout mode before the arrival of the new generation, the Nissan Qashqai is up 202% to #5 whereas the Lada Largus gains one further spot to a best-ever #6.

The Geely (Shanghai Englon) SC7 in neighbouring Urumqi – China

Finally from this month onwards Kazakh stats include Chinese carmaker Geely, met with a lot of interest here: the SC7 is the first Chinese model to break into the local Top 25 at #21 this month with 144 sales and 1.1% share. This is actually rather logical given the success of the SC7 in Xinjiang, the Chinese province bordering Kazakhstan, and particularly in Urumqi where I was a couple of days ago.

Previous month: Kazakhstan February 2014: Complete change of guard atop the ranking!

Previous year: Kazakhstan Full Year 2013: Lada Priora tops world’s fastest growing market

Full March 2014 Top 30 models Ranking Table below.