South Korean automaker Kia Motors announced has sold a total of 197,695 vehicles in August, marking a year-on-year increase of 13.8 per cent.

In August, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in all of its overseas regions – 40.9 per cent in China (37,748 units), 24 per cent in North America (46,992 units), 19.8 per cent in Europe (33,552 units) and 0.9 per cent in general markets (42,792 units), while sales in the home market of Korea declined by 5.2 per cent (36,611 units).

‘General markets’ include the regions of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia (excluding China and Korea), the Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Cumulatively, through the first eight months of 2011, Kia’s global sales have increased by 18.4 per cent year-on-year to reach 1,609,886 units.

North America has experienced the highest gain to date in 2011 sales of 36.9 per cent (377,078 units) while the remaining regions have all shown strong cumulative year-on-year sales increases: 24.4 per cent in China (275,607 units), 18.7 per cent in Europe (302,522 units), 11.3 per cent in general markets (329,017 units) and 4.4 per cent in Korea (325,662 units).

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of August was the C-segment Cerato with 32,593 units sold.

The Sportage compact CUV was the second best seller with 25,886 units delivered, while the B-segment Rio, Sorento mid-size CUV and Soul urban crossover vehicle followed with 22,241, 21,961 and 13,876 units sold, respectively. – TradeArabia News Service