South Korean automaker Kia Motors Corporation has sold total of 179,409 units including passenger cars, recreational and commercial vehicles in January, marking a year-on-year increase of 19.3 per cent.

In January, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in all regions of the world, a statement said.

The company recorded a 31.4 per cent increase in general markets including Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia (excluding China and Korea) and the Pacific with 40,374 units sold.

It registered an increase of 25.7 per cent in North America at 30,838 units, while it sold 40,502 units in Korea, marking an increase of 19.1 per cent.

Sales in China saw a 13.6 per cent increase with 40,776 units sold, and 6.8 per cent in Europe at 26,919 units sold.

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of January was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 39,668 units sold.

The Sportage compact CUV and B-segment Rio follow with 23,185 and 17,348 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size CUV comes in fourth with 13,774 units sold and the Soul urban crossover vehicle rounds out the top five with 10,891 units sold.

Thomas Oh, senior executive vice president & COO of Kia Motors, said: “With some encouraging signs of recovery coming out of many major markets around the world and the impending launch of the next generation A-segment Picanto and B-segment Rio later this year, we at Kia are confident we will achieve our 2011 global retail sales target of 2,345,000 units which represents a 12 per cent increase compared to 2010.” – TradeArabia News Service