Kia Motors and GM Daewoo are locked in fierce competition to secure the second place spot (Hyundai leads) in the Korean automobile industry early on this year.
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Statistics on Korean automobiles sold both at home and abroad in January show that GM Daewoo has ranked No. 2 moving 117,420 units, 12,496 more than Kia’s 104,924.
Daewoo Motor rose to the second spot by selling 950,000 units in 2000, outpacing Kia’s 840,000, but witnessed sales volume decreases throughout the process of the sale of the company and subsequently lagged behind Kia for five years, until last year.
In terms of the overall sales volume last year, Kia was ahead of GM Daewoo, selling 1.26m units, some 100,000 more than GM Daewoo’s 1.15m.
GM Daewoo director Kim Jong-do said the increase in GM Daewoo this year is attributed to the strong performance of its new medium-size model, Tosca, in the market and a sharp increase in the export of compact-car models.
GM Daewoo plans to aggressively expand its sales by releasing a new sport utility vehicle (SUV) model in May. Kia will recover its sales by exporting its medium-size model Lotze to the North American market and release the successors of the Carens and Opirus in succession.
