Kia Motors Corporation has announced an improvement in their business during the first quarter of 2014.
The news is surprising when the state of trading in the domestic market and the strength of the Korean Won-US Dollar exchange rate.
Global sales climbed 5.2% in Q1, with more than 687,000 units sold.
Sales in China climbed 13.3% to 156,000 units, while sales in Europe reached 89,000 units, for a 7.9% increase.
Sales in the US hit 133,000 units for a 4.8% increase, while the rest of the world delivered a 1.8% increase and 201,000 units sold.
At home, sales fell by 0.6% to 108,000 units.
What was most surprising was that despite an exchange rate that saw the US dollar drop 1.6% against the Won, Kia was still able to increase revenues by 7.6% to 11.9 trillion Won.
That meant a profit of 2.5 trillion won and 736 billion won in gross profit and operating profit, respectively.
Global Kia Sales
A big part of the reason for the Q1 success was down to an increase in RV sales across the globe.
There was about a 2% leap across the board, but the big win in this category was in the US, where sales of the Sportage and Sorento accounted for 36% of Q1 sales, compared to 29% in Q1 of 2013.
Increases were also seen in factory production, including a 9.3% increase in Korean plants to 433,000 units.
Kia’s manufacturing plants in other parts of the world combined for a 10.8% increase, for a total of 339,000 units.