Kia Motors Corporation announced today its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for June 2010, recording a total of 184,111 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 16.2%. In June, Kia posted healthy year-on-year sales increases in all overseas sales regions: 52.6% in general markets (39,656 units sold), 18.1% in China (26,663 units sold), 17.9% in North America (37,770 units sold) and 12.0% in Europe* (35,591 units sold). Cumulatively, through the first six months of 2010, Kia’s global sales surpassed the 1-million unit mark, posting an increase of 34.1% year-on-year and reaching 1,004,724 units. China has experienced the highest gain of 75.6% based on sales of 170,977 units to date in 2010. The remaining regions have all showed cumulative strong double digit year-on-year sales increases: 57.3% in general markets (214,319 units sold), 26.7% in Europe* (194,664 units sold), 18.5% in Korea (228,189 units sold) and 16.0% in North America (196,575 units sold).
Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of June was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 33,803 units sold. The B-segment Rio and Sportage compact SUV follow with 18,413 and 16,827 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size CUV comes in fourth with 15,322 units sold and the cee’d C-segment vehicle for Europe rounds out the top five with 12,247 units sold. In terms of vehicle category sold overseas, Kia’s recreational vehicles and passenger cars achieved year-on-year increases in June of 40.3% (54,543 units) and 14.3% (80,868 units), respectively. Hyoung-Keun Lee, President of Kia Motors Corporation, said, “I am encouraged to see sales of Kia vehicles around the world eclipse the 1 million unit annual mark faster than ever before in our company’s history. All of our major markets are now gearing up for retail sales of the completely redesigned and reengineered Sportage CUV, which will certainly add to our momentum and help continue strong sales for the brand in the second half of the year.”
