January-October worldwide sales report

In the first 10 months of fiscal year, Kia Motors sold 1,172,958 vehicles worldwide. Compared to the same period of last year, this number represents a respectable 12,7 percent year-on-year increase.

In Octber 2008 Kia sold 110,421 cars and experienced a little decrease in sales compared to previous month. Sales decreased mainly due to slowing demand for new cars in the world’s largest European and US markets. The best selling car in October was cee’d hatchback, which outsold the Spectra/Cerato for the first time.

Speaking of best-selling Kia cars, here are the top five Kia vehicles that have performed the best through all 10 months of this year. With 166,688 units sold, Spectra/Cerato remains at the top of best selling Kia models. It has been followed closely by the B-segment Rio at 133,864 units and the C-segment cee’d at 128,672 units.

Ranked in fourth, there has been a Sportage. It has received received a major facelift earlier this year and continues to perform pretty well in the crowded compact SUV market. With sales of 122,330 units it has surpassed an A-segment Picanto in fifth position with sales of 81,136 units.

In October 2008, Kia Motors experienced a strong demand for it’s vehicles in South Korea and China where it’s sales increased +34% to 33,609 and +37% to 11,351 units respectively. Meanwhile, the company experienced a 21% and 34% decrease in sales in US and Europe.

Cumulatively, through the first ten months of 2008, China (123,853 units sold) and general markets (216,269 units sold) have experienced the largest year-on-year gains of 37.9%, and 34.3%, respectively. Cumulative sales increases have also been experienced in Korea (an 18.3% gain with 262,780 units sold) and Europe (a 4.7% gain with 293,310 units sold), while North America has experienced a small decrease (3.7% decrease with 276,746 units sold).

Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO of the International Business Division, said, “Although the automobile industry is feeling the brunt of the economic downturn, we continue see strong growth particularly across China, Korea and general markets this month. Overall, our sales volume remains high and we have experienced a 12.7% sales growth in 2008 to date. [Source: Kia Korea]