Cumulative global Kia sales through the first through Nov. up 10%

Kia has announced that it’s cumulative global vehicle sales -export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants- through November 2008 recorded 1,272,689 units, representing a 10.1% year-on-year increase. In November, Kia sold 99,731 vehicles globally, which represents a decrease of 13.9% compared to November of 2007.

So far this year, Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets has been Spectra with 178,198 units sold. The B-segment Rio takes second place with 143,392 units sold.

The C-segment cee’d and Kia’s Sportage compact SUV compete closely for third place with 139,489 and 134,238 units sold, respectively. Rounding out the top five, the A-segment Picanto continues to perform well with 86,658 units sold.

Through the first 11 months of this year, Kia has experienced the largest gains in China market where 134,176 Kia vehicles were sold and general markets with 239,785 units sold. Sales on both markets experienced year-on-year gains of 33.9%, and 32.2%, respectively.

Since introduction of new models such as Forte, Soul and Morning, cumulative sales of Kia vehicles on it’s home Korean market increased 17 percent to 288,925 units. In Europe, Kia experienced a less than 1% sales increase compared to last year – 315,172 units sold, while North America has seen a decrease of 6.3% percent ( 294,631 Kias sold).

In November, the number one selling Kia vehicle globally was the compact Sportage SUV, while strategic vehicles such as the cee’d continue to perform well in Europe. With the launch of the all-new Soul crossover early next year, we are confident that Kia’s product portfolio is well positioned to continue to stimulate sales growth in 2009.” [Source: Kia]