Kia’s sales grow on strong overseas demand

Kia Sportage SUV.

Kia, Korea's second-largest automaker by sales, said Tuesday its sales rose 0.3 percent last month from a year earlier helped by strong overseas demand for its SUV models.

Kia, a smaller affiliate of Hyundai Motor, sold 260,472 vehicles in July, up from 259,733 units a year ago, on increased sales of the Sportage and Seltos SUVs, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales fell 7.2 percent on-year to 47,424 units last month from 51,120, while overseas sales were up 2.1 percent to 212,508 from 208,208 during the cited period, it said.

From January to July, sales jumped 9.4 percent to 1,836,495 autos from 1,679,219 units in the same period of last year.

Domestic sales gained 8.5 percent to 339,527 units in the first seven months from 313,035, while overseas sales were up 9.5 percent to 1,493,811 from 1,364,703 during the mentioned period.

Military vehicle sales more than doubled to 3,157 units in the January-July period from 1,481 a year ago.

In 2023, the company set a sales goal of 3.2 million units, including overseas sales of 2.6 million.

Yonhap