Kia Motors Corporation announced that its global sales (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) of passenger cars, recreation vehicles (RVs) and light trucks in November 2007 recorded 116,322 units, representing a 9.0% year-on-year increase.

By region, Kia’s Europe market posted a year-on-year sales increase of 15.8% in November with 33,006 units sold. Meanwhile, sales of Kia vehicles in North America, China, general markets and Korea were 26,900 units (9.5% year-on-year increase), 10,634 units (6.4% year-on-year decrease), 20,580 units (26.5% year-on-year increase) and 25,202 units (3.1% year-on-year decrease), respectively.

Cumulatively through the first eleven months of 2007, Kia’s global sales increased by 3.7% year-on-year and reached 1,156,857 units. General markets have experienced the largest gain, selling 179,971 units to date for a 13.9% increase, while the North America market has showed cumulative year-on-year sales growth of 7.5%, selling 314,305 units. The Korea and Europe market are also performing well showing a cumulative year-on-year sales increase of 2.9% and 1.9%, respectively.

So far in 2007, Kia’s best selling model in export markets has been the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Spectra’ in some markets) with 167,790 units sold, followed by the Kia’s Sportage compact SUV with 117,734 and B-segment Rio with 110,188. The A-segment Picanto and Sorento mid-size SUV continue to perform well, selling 109,976 and 82,330 units, respectively.

In November, the C-segment cee’d, Kia’s first car designed and built by and for Europeans, continued to be the third best selling model in all of Kia’s export markets for the second consecutive month with 11,836 units sold.

By vehicle category sold overseas, Kia’s passenger cars sold 54,999 units in November, an increase of 15.1% year-on-year. Sales of passenger cars have also shown cumulative year-on-year sales growth of 8.3%, surpassing half a million units (542,967) sold in 2007. 32,896 RV units were sold in November, a 10.5% increase year-on-year. Cumulative sales of its RVs reached 335,936, representing growth of 2.1% year-on-year.

Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice President and COO of Kia Motors Corporation, said, “Kia Motors is ending the year strongly and sales trends are very positive. Our growth this year has been driven by consistent results in the North America market and significant growth in general markets, and has picked up in recent months thanks to accelerating sales in the Europe market.” [Source: Kia]

Editor’s notes:
* Global sales figures are based upon CBU export sales and sales from overseas and Korean production plants
** Includes figures from Western and Eastern European markets
***General markets includes the regions of Central and South America, Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa