Kia releases sales numbers for May 2009; the 2010 Soul crossover posts record high sales after it’s fourth month on the market

Kia Motors America has just released it’s May 2009 sales report. The US arm of the rising Korean car giant (Kia Motors) has announced it has sold 26.060 new cars and trucks in the US market last month. 

Kia’s May 2009 sales performance has been slightly worse when compared to the same month last year. The company experienced a 16 percent drop in new car sales, but still, it managed to fare way better than it’s Japanese rivals such as Honda and Toyota, both posting a 40 percent decrease in sales.

Kia’s top performing vehicle, in terms of monthly sales, has been - once again - the 2009 Spectra sedan. With sales of 7.896 units sold in May 2009, Spectra out-performed the Sportage compact SUV in the second spot. With 4.409 units sold, the Sportage saw it’s sales increased by 21 percent from a year ago and achieving one of it’s best ever sales results since on the market.

Kia Soul posts record-high sales in May 

Launched four months ago, the uniquely styled 2010 Kia Soul urban passenger crossover has achieved a record high sales of 3.855 units in May. The Soul has seen it’s sales increased on a monthly basis ever since it’s official February introduction.

Compared to the previous month (April 2009), Soul’s sales have jumped by more than 19 percent. Since it’s arrival to the US Kia showrooms, 8.363 units have already been sold and the interest on the Soul just keeps growing, so we can expect to see even higher sales numbers in the near future.

Also new on the US market this month was the boxy Nissan Cube, which is considered to be one of the Soul’s main rivals. It’s official sales commenced on May 5th and by the end of the month Nissan dealers moved 1.745 Cubes from their lots.

Kia Forte goes on sale

The successor to the Spectra sedan is on sale now! In May, Kia dealers sold only 10 units of Forte sedan, but it’s sales are expected to pick once the Kia ships more cars to it’s dealers. The supply has been limited at the beginning of the sales and according to some Kia dealer reports, they only received up to three Fortes so far, so it will probably take a month or two until we see some higher Forte sales numbers.

Equipped with fuel efficient “Theta II” engine, the 2010 Kia Forte will be available in two variants; as a sedan and a coupe. According to Kia, only a few months from now, the 2010 Kia Forte sedan is expected to be joined by a sportier two-door Forte Koup. You can read our exclusive Kia Forte Koup test drive report here. 

Kia’s May 2009 sales report also shows the sales numbers for other models. As you can see models such as Optima and Rio experienced slightly lower sales, while Sorento’s and Rondo’s sales equals the numbers achieved in the same month a year earlier.

Since January of this year, Kia has already delivered 120.559 new vehicles to the US consumers. 

Kia’s May 2009 sales by model table