Kia reports 22.4% increase in worldwide sales
In a recession-thrashing development, Kia Motors has announced its global sales figures for passenger cars, recreational vehicles and commercial vehicles for June 2009, recording a total of 158,394 units sold. This marks a year-on-year increase of 22.4%.
By region, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in Korea (46,006 units sold, a 78.6% year-on-year increase), China (22,579 units, a 63.3% year-on-year increase), and general markets (25,988 units sold, a 3.4% year-on-year increase).
Cumulatively, through the first six months of 2009, Kia’s global sales increased by 4.5% year-on-year and reached 749,328 units. The Korean market experienced the highest gain selling 192,524 units to date, representing a 25.0% increase.
Chinese and general markets showed cumulative year-on-year sales increases of 22.1% (97,376 units sold) and 14.1% (136,277 units sold), respectively.
To date in 2009, Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets has been the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Spectra’ or ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 123,480 units sold. The B-segment Rio and Sportage compact SUV competed closely for second with 76,696 and 76,200 units sold, respectively. Meanwhile, the C-segment cee’d and A-segment Picanto round out the top five with 61,632 and 45,961 units sold, respectively.
In terms of vehicle category sold overseas, Kia’s recreational and passenger vehicles achieved year-on-year increases in June of 22.0% (38,867 units) and 2.7% (70,740 units), respectively.