Kia EV3 electric cars are produced at EVO Plant in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, in this photo provided by Kia, Sept. 27. Yonhap
Kia, Korea's second-largest automaker by sales, said Friday it saw a 2.8 percent increase in sales last month from a year earlier thanks to robust domestic demand.
Kia, an affiliate of domestic industry leader Hyundai Motor, sold 264,854 vehicles in October, up from 257,636 units a year ago, helped by robust local sales, the company said in a statement.
"Strong overseas sales of the Sportage, Sorento and Seltos SUVs propped up the monthly results," it said.
Domestic sales increased 7.1 percent on-year to 46,025 units last month from 42,960, while overseas sales were up 1.8 percent to 217,901 from 214,130 during the cited period, it said.
The monthly sales figures include special-purpose vehicle sales results.
Kia expected the face-lifted Sportage SUV, to be launched domestically on Tuesday, and the planned launch of the all-electric EV3 compact SUV in Europe to help boost sales for the rest of the fourth quarter.
From January to October, sales fell 1.1 percent to 2,584,244 autos from 2,611,865 units in the year-ago period.
Domestic sales declined 4.9 percent to 445,925 units in the first 10 months from 468,835, while overseas sales were down 0.2 percent to 2,133,391 from 2,138,499. (Yonhap)
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