Kia Motors Grows Global Sales By 24.1%Kia Motors Grows Global Sales By 24.1% Kia Motors Corporation has announced that its global sales (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) of passenger cars, recreation vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles in July 2008 recorded 122,230, representing a 24.1per cent year-on-year increase.
By region, Kia posted large, year-on-year sales increases in China (11,110 units, a 114.1 per cent year-on-year increase), Korea (27,514 units, a 37.5 per cent year-on-year increase) and general markets (22,973 units, a 37.3 per cent year-on-year increase). Sales increases were also significant in Europe and North America where 28,670 (8.4 per cent year-on-year increase) and 31,963 (6.2 per cent year-on-year increase) Kia vehicles were sold in July respectively.
Cumulatively, through the first seven months of 2008, Kia's global sales increased by 16.9 per cent year-on-year and reached 839,384 units. China (90,863 units sold) and general markets (142,402 units sold) have experienced the largest gains of 42.7 per cent, and 33.3 per cent, respectively. Cumulative year-on-year sales increases have also been experienced in all other sales regions: Korea (18.2 per cent gain with 181,544 units sold); Europe (12.4 per cent gain with 216,332 units sold); and North America (3.5 per cent gain with 208,243 units sold).
So far in 2008, Kia's best selling model in overseas markets has been the C-segment Cerato (known as 'Spectra' in some markets) with 124,058 units sold. It is followed by a close group of three vehicles: the B-segment Rio at 94,340, the C-segment cee'd at 91,857 and Kia's Sportage compact SUV at 87,547. Meanwhile, the A-segment Picanto continues to perform well with 61,498 units sold.
Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President, International Business Division, said: “As we enter the second half of 2008, we continue to experience strong sales growth across all markets, and we have achieved consistently high and significant year-on-year gains in China and general markets in particular. These results represent great performance by our sales team, especially given the difficult industry environment.”
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