Kia sells 15 million units in Korea over past 60 years

Kia Corp. has sold its 15 million units on the domestic market since releasing its first vehicle six decades ago in 1962.

The company on Monday said its cumulative domestic sales hit 14.9 million units last month and exceeded the 15 million milestone by the middle of this month.

Lining up the 15 million units based on the length of the company's most popular model Sorrento (4.8 meters) would cover 72,000 km, or 221 times the straight-line distance of 325 km between Seoul and Busan.

Starting with the nation's first three-wheel vehicle K-360 in 1962, Kia began as an exclusive seller of commercial vehicles but introduced its first passenger model Brisa in 1974. Full-scale sales of passenger cars began in the 1980s through models like the subcompact Pride.

In 1986, the company achieved a first on the domestic market with annual sales of 100,000 units and in 1989, its cumulative sales broke one million, followed by five million in 1999 and 10 million in 2013. The 15 million marks came nine years later.

By type, passenger vehicles comprised 6.8 million units, or 45% of the 15 million that Kia produced over the last six decades, followed by recreational vehicles or RVs with 4.2 million or 28% and commercial vehicles four million or 27%.

The best-selling Kia passenger model in Korea is the city car Morning with 1.21 million units, followed by the SUV Carnival with 1.13 million units and mid-size crossover SUV Sorento 1 million. The SUV Sportage is seen to be the next model to break a million with 850,000.

The brand thus commands a strong presence in the domestic RV market as three of Kia's top five sellers in Korea are RVs.

Among models that have sold more than 100,000 units per year, the first-generation Pride released in 1987 set a company record for annual sales with 126,226 units in 1992 and exceeded 100,000 units from 1991-93. The semi-mid-size sedan Sephia, mid-size sedan Credos and Morning were also members of the 100,000 club.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com