Kia Motors said its global sales figures for passenger cars, recreational and commercial vehicles for 2010 reached an all-time high of 2,089,355 units sold, cementing its position as one of the world’s fastest growing automakers.

The sales figures include export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants, said a company statement.

The record figure represents an annual year-on-year increase of 26.5 per cent and marks the first time in the company’s history that it has eclipsed the 2 million unit sales mark, said Thomas Oh, senior executive vice president & COO, Kia Motors.

By region, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in general markets (447,994 units sold, a 47.1 per cent year-on-year increase), China (354,944 units sold), North America (410,150), Europe (391,755) and Korea (484,512 units), said Oh.

For December, double digit sales growth was achieved in North America (33,483 units sold, a 41.3 per cent year-on-year increase), general markets (37,179 units) and Europe (31,187). China (34,194 units sold) and Korea (45,216 units sold) saw a slight decrease in December year-on-year sales, falling by 2.3 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 403,303 units sold followed by Sportage compact CUV and B-segment Rio with 207,922 and 205,351 units sold, respectively.

The Sorento mid-size CUV came in fourth with 174,892 units sold, while the Soul urban crossover vehicle rounded out the top five with 135,407 units sold.

“All of us at Kia Motors are encouraged to have ended 2010 by setting a new all-time global sales mark of in excess of 2 million vehicles," said Oh.

"Despite the slow economic recovery, we look forward to maintaining our momentum in 2011 as we push forward with our ongoing aggressive new product launch cycle with the introduction of the next generation Picanto A-segment and Rio B-segment volume sellers later this year,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service