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Kia posts record sales in March 2008
Kia Motors today announced its global sales figures (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) of passenger cars, recreation vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for March 2008.
The company recorded the sales of 124,767 units, which represents a 11.5 percent year-on-year increase.
Cumulatively through the first quarter of 2008, Kia’s global sales increased by 12.3% year-on-year and reached 330,887 units.
General markets have experienced the largest gain, selling 52,399 units to date, representing a 31.9% increase, while the China and Europe markets have showed cumulative year-on-year sales growth of 24.7% (39,498 units sold) and 17.2% (89,205 units sold), respectively. The Korea market has also shown a cumulative year-on-year sales increase of 10.4% (74,411 units sold).
So far in 2008, Kia’s best selling model in export markets has been the C-segment Cerato (Spectra) with 49,274 units sold. It is followed by a tight group of three vehicles:
Sportage compact SUV with 35,294 units;
C-segment cee’d with 35,214 units;
B-segment Rio with 33,610 units.
The A-segment Picanto comes in fifth with 27,947 units sold. Noteworthy is that the cee’d, sold only in Europe, and designed and produced for Europe by Europeans, charts as the second most sold car in Kia’s overseas product portfolio this month for the first time.
By region, Kia posted large year-on-year sales increases in general markets (18,796 units sold, a 25.0% year-on-year increase) and Korea (28,316 units sold, a 23.1% year-on-year increase). Sales of Kia vehicles in China, Europe and North America were 13,174 units (16.1% year-on-year increase), 36,453 units (13.5% year-on-year increase) and 28,028 (7.8 % year-on year decrease), respectively.By vehicle category sold overseas, Kia’s passenger cars sold 60,887 units in February, an increase of 12.0% year-on-year. 32,771 RV units were also sold in February for a 4.2% increase year-on-year.
Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, International Business Division of Kia Motors Corporation, said, “Sales volume was particular strong in most markets this month for Kia vehicles. Taken together we sold more cars this month than we did any month last year. We continue to grow in Europe and emerging general markets, and the indicative trend from the first quarter is a positive sign for our dealers in most markets throughout the world.” [Source: Kia]
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GOOOO KIA!!! man if this spectra sells so good then imagine the how the next spectra will do! and sportage is also doing great. I love that SUV! 😀
Agree on that Boris. But hey, nobody mentioned Sorento, which used to be among the top five selling vehicles until recently. I gues it’s sales is slowing down due to it’s age. But Kia has preparing new Sorento model and I received some info about it from a friend. I’ll soon post some details and two spy pics of it.
O thats great! how does the design look. lot of curves or is it boxy?
himi, has anyone seen the new Sorento bodystyle yet? It should be out soon, right? Overall this sales report is bullish for Kia. Things are looking good worldwide and when the 2009 Kia Spectra comes out and the Soul and the decision is made on the production of the Koup, etc, things will look even better later in 2008.
the new sorento is supposed to come out as a 2010 model.
Oh, I didn’t think I had seen anything new on it yet. It’s gettin’ a bit long in the tooth, huh?
I had posted info about it on the forums.
Himi. the excitment is killing me… atleast give a tiny preview of it on the main blog. 🙂
does it look like Kue?
You can’t really see the exterior because of all of the camouflage covering it’s body. And the pics only shows the 2/3 of the car. It is believed to be the next gen. Sorento, but not confirmed…
I see you can’t wait to see more, so here’s a hint for you Boris: If you check one of the spy pics of Kia Soul closely, you can see the 2010 Sorento… Search for production ready Kia Soul pics that were posted here last month and there it is. Behind the Soul and Mohave, there is the third vehicle and that is the 2010 Kia Sorento!
O thanks a lot. looks pretty small. It could be sportage or sorento
Can Himi or Boris give Jason another clue about this picture? I just looked through a bunch of pictures and can’t figure out where this photo is. Just the posting date would be fine…
Kia continues to outsell itself, which is a great point I make to potential Kia naysayers. “Well Kia… [something negative about what they’ve heard about Kia, and disliking “foreign cars” in general].” I remind them that most “American” vehicles are made out of the USA, while more and more “foreign” vehicles are being built within the USA. And that Kia has for years had more sales than they did the previous year; many returning customers (a good sign of quality and satisfaction) on second or third vehicle purchases (I don’t have any source numbers but I work at a dealership and see many repeat customers); recognized car magazines (Car and Driver, Road & Track, etc.) give praise to Kia vehicles, etc. Cheers to Kia on another great month!
type “production ready Kia soul” in the search box above and then click on the tittle: Production Ready Kia Soul and you’ll find the pic. its in the first row of pics.
Is the picture the first one? I see a bit of the lower half of a vehicle, which I agree, could be Sportage or Sorento (though with not-current production rims). Is that it?
yes thats the pic. Its size makes me think its a sportage.
alright, now… it says “Coming later TODAY: new round of 2009 Kia Soul spy pics!!”. and its past 9pm in himi’s place. how much longer?
Maybe he is waiting till he goes to bed, or until midnight in Korea. This computer is awesome. I am using the one at the University just south of town.
it looks like it could be the next sportage because of its length.
It’s too early for the Sportage guys. As you could read in in our forums, Sportage will be receiving an exterior facelift this year. So this is most probably a Sorento. And it’s not me that I’m guessing what it is (Sorento or Sportage), but it was confirmed by two friends working for Kia. And I trust them 100%… So, relying on that, I’d say it’s the 2010 Sorento.
It might look a bit small, but this could be due to the angle of taken pic…
well, it looked small in the background that pic of the soul as well. it does belong to the small SUV segment at the end of the day, plus its getting the unibody which I’m going to accept as a change. that will bring lots more customers although it might lose some customers that liked its BoF.
the soul pics should come today because himi posted that profits article yesterday and he usually limits it to one article a day. so it will come soon.