The Kia Seltos SUV owes its name to the mythical ancestor of the Celtic people, who inhabited the Western and Central Europe in ancient times. It is therefore ever so slightly ironic that Kia does not intend to sell it there.
According to Emilio Herrera, CEO Kia Europe, the mini-SUV has already penetrated a number of markets and became quite popular there. The sales geography includes the United States, South Korea, India and Russia. As for Europe, however, the Korean marque believes that the larger Sportage and Sorento SUVs are a better fit for the region. Furthermore, as it now turns out, Kia never even took Europe in account as a possible sales destination when designing the Seltos. The USA are a completely different story, because Kia hopes to sell plenty of units there.
The upcoming fifth generation of the Kia Optima will also skip Europe, with the manufacturer not providing any specific reasons. Still, it figures that large sedan/saloon models are quite unpopular in Europe, now that the SUV segment is booming, so the decision seems entirely logical.