KIA reached 10 Millionth Vehicle Export Mark

29 March 2011 - Kia has reached a significant milestone in vehicle exports – its 10th millionth export vehicle, a Snow White Pearl Optima sedan, was shipped yesterday to the US market from Kia’s main shipping hub, Pyeongtaek Port, located 80 km southwest of Seoul.

According to the automaker, it took 30 years for Kia Motors to reach the 5 million unit export mark, but only six years since 2005 to reach 10 million. Kia Motors’ exports began with a shipment of 10 pickup trucks to Qatar. The number of overseas destinations for Kia Motors vehicles has since expanded to 156 countries, according to the company.

Overseas sales of Kia Motors reached 1,647,019 vehicles, including those produced at overseas plants, in 2010 alone. To commemorate this milestone event, a celebration ceremony was held today at Pyeongtaek Port which was attended by some 400 guests including Kia Motors Vice Chairman & CEO Hyoung-Keun Lee, local government officials and numerous foreign dignitaries stationed in Korea.

Kia said that sales of vehicles produced at its overseas factories surged 86 percent to 730,000 in 2010. Exports of vehicles made at factories in South Korea rose 26 percent to 917,000 for the full year. Domestic sales, meanwhile, gained 18 percent to 483,000 vehicles.

Its worldwide market footprint has also grown dramatically, from 10 countries in the 80s to 156 countries today. In terms of cumulative exports units, the US leads the way with 4.27 million, followed by Europe with 2.45 million. In the Asia-Pacific, the figure is 0.88 million. By model, the A-segment Picanto is Kia’s most popular export unit, with 764,453 cumulative units shipped, followed by the B-segment Rio and Sorento SUV, with 747,554 units and 656,446 units shipped, respectively.