Kia Motors Corporation sold 67,076 passenger cars and light trucks in overseas markets during August 2006 (excluding locally assembled units), up 1.6% year on year.
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By region, North America posted a year-on-year sales rise of 4.8% in August with 27,973 units sold. Sales in Europe and the general market recorded 22,991 units (2.7% year-on-year increase) and 16,112 (5.1% year-on-year decrease), respectively.
Cumulatively for the first eight months of 2006, Kia’s overseas sales have risen by 3.6% year-on-year to reach 562,365 units, with Europe showing the largest gain at 6.6%.
North American sales have increased by 3.1% while general market sales have decreased by 0.3%.
So far in 2006, Kia’s best selling model in export markets has been the C-segment Cerato (also known as ‘Spectra’ in some markets) with 91,963 units sold. The Sorento mid-size SUV was second with 84,896 vehicles delivered. The A-segment Picanto – popular in Europe – was close behind with 84,465 units sold.
Jung-Moon Park, senior executive vice president and COO of Kia Motors, said: “Despite difficult conditions in the global automotive market, we continue to see steady growth in our major markets of North America and Europe, in particular eastern Europe, which has seen sales rise by 50% so far this year.”
“Leading our growth has been the rising popularity of our smaller segment models such as the C- segment Cerato (Spectra) due to continued high oil prices worldwide,” he added.
