Kia Motors Corporation announced today its global sales figures for passenger cars (export sales, domestic sales, and sales from overseas plants), recreational vehicles (RVs), and commercial vehicles for January 2010, recording a total of 150,392 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 62.9%.

By region, Kia posted year-on-year sales increases in China (35,904 units sold, a 235.2% year-on-year increase), general markets (30,727 units, a 61.1% year-on-year increase), Korea  (34,007 units sold, a 54.2% year-on-year increase), Europe (25,216 units sold, a 52.4% year-on-year increase), , and North America (24,538 units, a 2.6% year-on-year increase).

In January 2010, Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets has been the C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) with 33,499 units sold. Kia’s B-segment Rio and Sportage compact SUV compete for second with 15,503 and 14,259 units sold, respectively. The Sorento mid-size SUV comes in fourth with 11,190 units sold, and the Picanto concludes the top five with 8,729 units sold.

In terms of vehicle category sold overseas, Kia’s passenger and recreational vehicles achieved year-on-year increases in January of 72.0% (72,674 units) and 57.5% (40,065 units), respectively.

Hyoung-Keun Lee, President of Kia Motors Corporation, said “It is encouraging that we were able to continue Kia’s rapid momentum of 2009 and get off to a fast start in 2010. Our ongoing ‘glocalization’ efforts are further propelling the brand as our new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Georgia, USA is ramping up production of the all-new Sorento while the built-in-Europe Venga is now in showrooms across Europe.”