High demand across Europe for a broad range of Kia products during September, powered Kia sales up by 41% last month, to 30,528 vehicles. While the
Picanto small car continues to be Kia’s biggest seller, with almost 10,000 customers in September (9,916 units), consumers found many other Kia models highly attractive. Sorento SUV sales totalled 4,266 units, followed by Sportage (3,679), the new Rio and Cerato – both boosted by diesel engine availability.
Sales for the first nine months of 2005 reached 208,534 units, 55% higher than the Kia brand achieved in same period of 2004. So far this year, Picanto tops Kia sales with a total of 65,076 units delivered, heading the Sorento (31,349 units) and Sportage (30,449) in Kia’s top three.
“Once again, Kia’s monthly sales performance in Europe – above 30,000 units for the very first time – has clearly demonstrated how our products now match the tastes and needs of European consumers,” commented Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe. “It is encouraging to see more and more new customers are switching to the Kia brand and with supplies of the Picanto Diesel beginning to arrive, followed later by the all-new Magentis D-Segment car, we can confidently expect our highly successful 2005 to continue till year-end.”
For the nine months of 2005, year-to-date, Kia’s total sales in the leading European countries were Spain with 33,382 units (up by 67%), followed closely by Germany (32,913 – up 49%), the UK (32,880 + 29%) and Italy (30,132 + 57%).
Kia sales around the world climb 27.8% during first nine months Around the world, Kia’s export sales during the first nine months of 2005, totalled 619,242 units – up by 27.8% over last year, even before the new B-Segment Rio became readily available in all markets.
In global terms, the Cerato (also known as the Spectra in some markets) is Kia’s biggest seller this year with 91,071 sales so far, followed by the Picanto (88,160 units) and Sorento SUV (86,450 units).
Mr Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice-President and COO of Kia Motors Corporation, commented, “We are confident that our dynamic mix of new models, which spans a broad range of segments, will continue to raise Kia’s front-of-mind awareness among consumers.
“In particular, we expect the completely redesigned D-Segment Magentis, which goes on sale later this year, to have great appeal to both existing and new Kia customers. This new, elegantly understated executive sedan – with its significant improvements in design, comfort, performance, quality and safety – will transform Kia’s fortunes in this sector of the market,” concluded COO Kim.
