The compact box-styled SUV, the Kia Soul broke the one million mark in global exports said the South Korean carmaker on Tuesday.

[ads id=”7″ style=”float:left;padding:9px;”]Kia had exported 1.04 million Souls until September this year since the car was first released in 2008. This is about 12 times more than the 83,346 sold in the South Korea’s domestic market over the same period.

North America is the biggest market for the Soul since it was launched, accounting for 80 percent of the total exports. Starting with 31,621 units sold in 2009, the Soul has been selling over 100,000 units each year in the country since 2011.

It also increased sales in Europe after Pope Francis rode in the Kia Soul during his trip to Korea in August last year, an appeared at the news. Also the launch of the EV variant (check our review here) help to add more units the Soul numbers and increased the brand image. A future new variants could help to increase the market share of the Kia Soul.