Kia Motors posts 17.3% global sales growth in November

KIA motors Corporation announced on December 9 its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for November 2010, recording a total of 179,200 units sold.

In November, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in all regions of the world: 43.0% in North America (30,623 units sold), 21.9% in China (36,507 units sold), 13.9% in Korea (44,049 units sold), 12.0% in general markets (35,376 units sold) and 4.7% in Europe (32,645 units sold).

Cumulatively, through the first eleven months of 2010, Kia’s global sales have increased by 28.1% year-on-year to reach 1,908,096 units. General markets and China have experienced the highest gains to date in 2010 of 49.3% (410,815 units sold) and 44.7% (320,750 units sold), respectively.

The remaining regions have all showed strong cumulative double digit year-on-year sales increases: 20.0% in Korea (439,296 units sold), 18.7% in Europe (360,568 units sold) and 16.8% in North America (376,667 units sold).

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of November was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 34,645 units sold. The Sportage compact CUV and B-segment Rio follow with 22,675 and 16,038 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size CUV comes in fourth with 15,820 units sold and the Soul urban crossover vehicle rounds out the top five with 10,704 units sold.

Senior Executive Vice President & COO of KIA motors Corporation, Thomas Oh, said, “As we head into the final month of 2011, we are encouraged to see continued positive year-on-year sales growth in all of our major sales regions. Furthermore, we are well on track to exceed 2 million global sales units in 2011, which will be a milestone achievement for KIA motors . All of our employees around the world are focused on finishing out the year in a strong fashion while maintaining strong momentum for the brand that will carry us over into the New Year.”