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Kia Motors Posts 18.5% Global Sales Growth In February


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SYDNEY – March 11, 2011: Kia Motors Corporation has announced its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for February 2011, recording a total of 169,727 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 18.5%.

In February, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in all regions of the world – 35.6% in North America (36,676 units sold), 18.6% in Europe* (29,644 units sold), 17.5% in Korea (39,029 units sold), 15.3% in general markets* (37,576 units sold), and 5.4% in China (26,802 units sold).

Cumulatively, during the first two months of 2011, Kia’s global sales have increased by 18.9% year-on-year to reach 349,136 units. North America and general markets have experienced the highest gains to date in 2011 of 30.9% (67,514 units sold) and 23.1% (77,950 units sold), respectively.

The remaining regions have all showed strong cumulative double digit year-on-year sales increases: 18.3% in Korea (79,531 units sold), 12.7% in Europe (56,563 units sold) and 10.2% in China (67,578 units sold).

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of February was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 30,688 units sold. The Sportage compact CUV and B-segment Rio follow with 22,275 and 15,851 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size CUV comes in fourth with 14,460 units sold and the Soul urban crossover vehicle rounds out the top five with 12,722 units sold.

Senior Executive Vice President & COO of Kia Motors Corporation, Thomas Oh, said, “Although the global auto market outlook for 2011 appears uncertain due to rising oil prices, we at Kia are confident that our completely redesigned and re-engineered A-segment Picanto and B-segment Rio, which premiered last week at the Geneva Motor Show, will enable us to maintain strong positive growth in all regions thanks to their distinctively stylish new designs and fuel efficient powertrains.”