KIA Motors 53.2 Percent Global Sales Increase in November

South Korean car maker KIA Motors seems to handle itself rather well, given the current global economic situation. The automotive maker in question managed to sell some 152,826 units worldwide in November.

This figure accounts for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles and represents a 53.2 percent increase over the same month last year. When divided by region, the result shows that Kia’s strongest market remained the South Korean one, where 38,687 units were sold. Europe returned a strong result as well, with 31,188 new vehicles being sold on the Old Continent.

The U.S. car market also registered a significant growth despite economic downturn, the South Korean automaker succeeding in registering a 19 percent increase there with 21,419 units sold. However, one proud achievement for Kia came from the Chinese car market, where it managed to achieve a 190 percent increase compared to November 2008, selling 29,957 units.

"November has proven to be another tremendously successful month for Kia. This month we saw growth across all markets and we will seek to continue to satisfy customers with our ongoing rollout of new, stylish and fuel efficient products, including the recently launched Cadenza," said Hyoung-Keun Lee, President Kia Motors Corporation.

The company’s best selling car in 2009 is the Forte, also marketed as Spectra or Cerato in other parts of the world, with 269,864 units sold to date. Second place in this respect was the Rio with 159,385 units worldwide and third was the Sportage SUV with 157,312.