[By NBC-1TV E. H Kim]Kia Motors Corporation announced today its global sales figures (export sales, domestic sales and sales from overseas plants) for passenger cars, recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles for January 2012, recording a total of 185,284 units sold. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 3.3%.

In January, Kia posted strong double digit year-on-year sales increases in two of its major sales regions – 33.2% in Europe* (35,852 units sold) and 27.4% in North America (39,291 units sold). It was the highest total global January sales ever for Kia.

Kia’s best selling model in overseas markets for the month of January was the B-segment Rio (known as ‘K2’ in China) with 32,288 units sold. The C-segment Cerato (known as ‘Forte’ in some markets) was the second best seller with 25,489 units delivered, while the Sportage compact CUV, D-segment Optima sedan and Sorento mid-size CUV followed with 24,647, 15,459 and 14,473 units sold, respectively.

Tae-Hyun (Thomas) Oh, Senior Executive Vice President & COO of Kia Motors Corporation, said, “This was our highest global January sales ever and we are particularly pleased to see Europe perform so well. We expect our momentum there to continue due to the successful December launch of all-new Optima, which was highly anticipated by European customers, and our upcoming EURO 2012 sponsorship.”