Kia Reveals 17.5 Percent Global Sales Increase in July

Kia is one of the companies that benefit the most from government scrapping schemes around the world and this thing can be easily seen in the official sales figures rolled out by the carmaker a few days ago. Kia sold a total of 143,588 units in July, which represents a 17.5 percent increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

China is obviously the largest market, with 22,367 units sold and a 101.3% year-on-year increase, followed by Korea with 34,811 units and a 26.5% year-on-year boost. North America comes in third, as deliveries grew to 34,455 units sold, up 7.8 percent compared to July 2008.

Specifically, Kia's best selling model in overseas markets was the Cerato, also known as Spectra or Forte in various markets. The company delivered a total of 152,784 units of this particular model, according to official figures given by Kia. Kia's Sportage compact SUV and the B-segment Rio followed closely with 94,216 and 89,388 units sold, respectively. Kia c'eed (72,111 units) and Picanto (55,165 units) are also two of the company's best-selling models last month.

As for the seven months of the year, Kia's global sales increased by 6.4 percent, reaching a total of 892,916 units.

"Despite a very challenging industry environment, we are pleased to see that Kia continues to post steady growth. Additionally, with the release of our 1st half earnings figures, it is clear that Kia's financial performance is strong and we look forward to continuous success through 2009," Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO of the International Business Division, Kia Motors Corporation, said.