Kia Motors Corporation announces its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for March 2011, recording a total of 216,219 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 21.9%.
In March, Kia posted strong double digit year-on-year sales increases in all regions of the world - 41.8% in North America (49,573 units sold), 21.3% in Korea (46,100 units sold), 17.9% in China (33,951 units sold), 17.4% in general markets* (41,237 units sold), and 12.1% in Europe* (45,358 units sold).
Cumulatively, through the first three months of 2011, Kia's global sales have increased by 20.0% year-on-year to reach 565,355 units. North America and general markets have experienced the highest gains to date in 2011 of 35.3% (117,087 units sold) and 21.1% (119,187 units sold), respectively.
The remaining regions have all showed strong cumulative double digit year-on-year sales increases: 19.4% in Korea (125,631 units sold), 12.6% in China (101,529 units sold) and 12.4% in Europe (101,921 units sold).
Kia's best selling model in overseas markets for the month of March was the C-segment Cerato (known as 'Forte' in some markets) with 35,907 units sold. The Sportage compact CUV and B-segment Rio follow with 26,922 and 21,273 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size CUV comes in fourth with 18,195 units sold and the Soul urban crossover vehicle rounds out the top five with 17,140 units sold.
Senior Executive Vice President & COO of Kia Motors Corporation, Thomas Oh, said, "March was another milestone month for Kia Motors as we celebrated our 10 millionth cumulative export. Meanwhile, the final sales figures for March are very encouraging - not only due to fact that all of our major sales regions experienced robust double digit growth, but also because we are seeing a very healthy balance in the distribution of sales among each of these regions."
Editor's notes:
* 'General markets' include the regions of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia (excluding China and Korea), the Pacific, Middle East and Africa. 'Europe' includes both Western and Eastern European markets.
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Kia Motors Corporation (www.kia.com) -- a maker of quality vehicles for the young-at-heart -- was founded in 1944 and is Korea's oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. As part of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia aims to become one of the world's premier automotive brands. Over 2.1 million vehicles a year are produced in 13 manufacturing and assembly operations in eight countries which are then sold and serviced through a network of distributors and dealers covering 172 countries. Kia today has over 44,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues of over US$20 billion. It is the major sponsor of the Australian Open and an official automotive partner of FIFA -- the governing body of the FIFA World CupTM. Kia Motors Corporation's brand slogan -- "The Power to Surprise" -- represents the company's global commitment to surpassing customer expectations through continuous automotive innovation.
Source: Kia Motors Corporation
