Korea Kia Motors Aims To Sell 126,000 Cars In Europe This Year

SEOUL February 28,2003; Jeongjin Lim writing for Dow Jones reported that Kia Motors Corp. said Friday it has set a European sales target of 126,000 cars this year, up 26% from 100,000 units sold in 2002.

South Korea's second largest carmaker set up units in Austria, Hungary, Czech, Belgium and the U.K. late last year in a bid to boost sales in the region, the company said. Kia Motors already had a sales unit in Germany.

Kia Motors also said it will invest more in after-sales service centers in the region, without specifying the investment amount.

The planned introduction of a new luxury model, Opirus, is expected to be a key driver in boosting sales in the region, Kia said.

Kia plans to market Opirus in Europe from June.

Kia hopes to sell a total of 527,000 units abroad in 2003. It's overall sales target for the year is 1.1 million units.

-By , Dow Jones Newswires;