Friday, December 5, 2014

Kia Motors' Sales Up 4.1% On-Year in November


SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Monday its sales rose 4.1 percent in November from a year ago, mainly due to a rise in demand at home and abroad.

The carmaker said it sold 267,734 cars overall last month, up from 257,261 vehicles sold a year earlier.

Of all cars sold, domestic sales surged 14.2 percent on-year to 44,500 units, while overseas sales hit 223,234, a 2.3 percent gain from November 2013, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales figures are the highest reached on a monthly basis since December 2012.

The latest data showed sales of new models like the Carnival minivan and Sorento crossover SUV boosting sales in the home market. It added aggressive marketing helped push up sales of the Morning, Sportage R SUV, K3 and K5 vehicles.

Overseas, the carmaker said sales of the Forte, Sportage and Optima contributed to the rise.

The data also showed a 5.9 percent rise in overseas production vis-a-vis the year before.

Compared to the month before, domestic sales surged 20.3 percent, while overseas numbers moved up 14.7 percent. Overall sales advanced 15.6 percent from 231,695 units sold in October.

For the first 11 months of this year, Kia's sales reached 2,758,840 units, up 6.8 percent from 2,582,121 vehicles sold in the same period last year. A total of 2,341,658 vehicles were sold abroad, a solid gain of 8.2 percent on-year. Kia's domestic sales also edged up 0.05 percent to 417,182 units.

For the future, Kia said its expect the weak Japanese yen and weaker growth in emerging markets to hurt sales, but emphasized it will try to boost sales through aggressive marketing and the introduction of new popular cars.


No comments: