South Korean automaker Kia Motors sold a total of 208,074 units (passenger cars, recreational and commercial vehicles) worldwide during July, representing a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent.

Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in all of its overseas regions – 45.2 per cent in China (34,419 units sold), 26.6 per cent in Europe (40,840 units sold), 26.3 per cent in North America (51,887 units sold), and 3.7 per cent in general markets including the Middle East and Africa (40,222 units sold), while sales in the home market of Korea declined by 9.7 per cent (40,706 units sold).

Cumulatively, through the first seven months of 2011, Kia’s global sales have increased by 19.1 per cent year-on-year to reach 1,412,191 units.

North America has experienced the highest gain to date in 2011 of 38.9 per cent (330,086 units sold) while the remaining regions have all shown strong cumulative year-on-year sales increases: 22.2 per cent in China (237,859 units sold), 18.5 per cent in Europe (268,970 units sold), 13.1 per cent in general markets (286,225 units sold) and 5.8 per cent in Korea (289,051 units sold).

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of July was the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 34,452 units sold.

The Sportage compact CUV was the second best seller with 28,079 units delivered, while the Sorento mid-size CUV, B-segment Rio and Soul urban crossover vehicle followed with 21,408, 19,403 and 16,102 units sold, respectively. – TradeArabia News Service