Kia posts 11.5% hike in global sales

MANILA, Philippines - Kia Motors Corp. announced that its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales, and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs), and commercial vehicles for May 2009 recorded a total of 141,949 units. This marks a year-on-year increase of 11.5 percent.

By region, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in China (20,252 units, a 51.3-percent year-on-year increase), Korea (38,102 units, a 44-percent year-on-year increase) and general markets (23,430 units, a 13-percent year-on-year increase).

Cumulatively through the first five months of 2009, Kia’s global sales increased by 0.5 percent year-on-year and reached 590,934 units. General markets experienced the largest gain, selling 110,289 units through May and representing a 17-percent increase, while the Korean and Chinese markets showed cumulative year-on-year sales increases of 14.2 percent (146,518 units) and 13.5 percent (74,797 units), respectively. 

So far 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 95,883 units sold. The B-segment Rio comes in second with 60,780 units sold, followed closely by the Sportage compact SUV with 58,091 units sold. Sales of the C-segment cee’d and the A-segment Picanto continue to perform well with 50,544 and 35,951 units sold, respectively.