Kia Motors Corporation announced today its global sales figures (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) for passenger cars, recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for October 2011, recording a total of 216,603 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 18.8%.
In October, Kia posted strong double digit year-on-year sales increases in many of its major sales regions – 41.4% in China (44,009 units sold), 35.4% in Europe (45,810 units sold), 20.1% in North America (42,870 units sold) and 10.7% in general markets (42,612 units sold). October sales in Kia’s home market of Korea declined by 4.3% (41,302 units sold).
Cumulatively, through the first ten months of 2011, Kia’s global sales have increased by 18.2% year-on-year to reach 2,044,225 units. North America has experienced the highest gain to date in 2011 of 33.5% (461,945 units sold) while the remaining regions have all shown cumulative year-on-year sales increases: 28.7% in China (365,786 units sold), 20.6% in Europe (395,588 units sold), 9.7% in general markets (411,990 units sold) and 3.5% in Korea (408,916 units sold).
Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of October was the B-segment Rio (known as ‘K2’ in China) with 33,797 units sold. The Sportage compact CUV was the second best seller with 30,622 units delivered, while the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets), Sorento mid-size CUV and D-segment Optima sedan followed with 27,556, 19,031 and 13,962 units sold, respectively.
“The all-new Picanto and Rio compact vehicles have been earning praise from motoring media and consumers alike, and have provided a boost to sales heading into the remainder of 2011,” said Tae-Hyun (Thomas Oh), Senior Executive Vice President & COO, Kia Motors Corp.
“And Kia’s new global brand campaign, ‘Inspired by What You Like’ now gaining traction in major markets around the world, we look forward to closing out the year with strong momentum for the brand,” he added.
