2012 Kia Soul sales success

The latest sales figures released concerning the US car market clearly show that the Japanese auto industry is still on the receiving end of some very sluggish numbers.

The same cannot be said for Korea’s Kia Motors Corp. who is riding a wave of great sales success, thanks in large part to the stylish Kia Soul.

The 2012 Kia Soul moved an impressive 63,635 units in the US during the first 6 months of the year.

That gave Kia a staggering 82%percent market share in the segment, easily beating competitors such as the Nissan Cube and Toyota’s Scion xB.

In the same 6 month period, the Scion sold only a little over 10,000 units, with the Cube lagging well behind with a total of 4,085 units sold.

The Soul crossover vehicle, thanks to a very astute marketing campaign, has really delivered the goods since it debuted back in 2009. It sold over 31,621 units in its first year on the U.S. market and then followed that with an impressive 67,110 and 102,267 units sold, respectively, in 2011.

At more than 10,000 units per month in 2012, the boxy Kia Soul is leaving its Japanese competitors in the dust.

The strong showing of the Kia Soul has prompted rivals Toyota to completely re-evaluate their involvement in the box car segment. What that means is that the carmaker will discontinue the Scion xB in the US market without making any further model changes.

It certainly is a major fall from grace for the xB, which started out strong in 2002, but has since seem sales drop dramatically in the past few years.

Nissan is also looking at scaling back their involvement in the box car segment by removing a pair of Cube trim models from the US market. Kia may already be dominant in this segment, but it is looking to go from strength to strength and actually expect the 2012 Soul to lead the way when it comes to boosting sales in the US.

Follow the Kia Soul monthly sales performance here: Kia Soul sales