Kia Motors said global sales for passenger cars, recreational vehicles and commercial vehicles for November 2011 rose 22.8% year on year to 220,037 units.
The Hyundai Motor affiliate posted strong double digit year-on-year sales increases in many of its major sales regions – 40.9% in Europe (45,985 units sold), 36.7% in North America (41,861), 33.4% in China (48,689) and 25.7% in general markets (44,471). But sales in the home market declined 11.4% to 39,031.
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Cumulatively, for the first 11 months of 2011, global sales rose 18.7% to reach 2,264,262 units. North America has experienced the highest gain to date in 2011 of 33.8% (503,806) while the remaining regions have all shown increases: 29.2% in China (414,475), 22.5% in Europe (441,573), 11.1% in general markets (456,461) and 2.0% in Korea (447,947).
Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets last month was the B-segment Rio (K2 in China) with 37,764 units sold. The C-segment Cerato (known as Forte in some markets) was the second best seller with 31,178 units delivered, while the Sportage compact CUV, Sorento mid-size CUV and D-segment Optima sedan followed with 30,148, 19,358 and 15,483 units sold, respectively.
COO Tae-Hyun (Thomas) Oh said: “We have enjoyed strong sales growth throughout November, especially in Europe which has taken the number one slot for monthly sales among our major sales regions for the first time in 2011, thanks to the popularity of our recently introduced new Picanto and Rio. This momentum is expected to continue as the long-awaited Optima will commence sales in Europe later this month.”
