Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, has become the fourth largest auto manufacturer in the world. Based on figures from the Automotive News Data Centre, the Korean carmaker has overtaken Ford, which saw its sales fall by more than 30% in 2009.
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 July 2009, recording a total of 143,588 units sold. This marks a year-on-year increase of 17.5%.
The 2009 Kia Sportage will be the recipient of a minor facelift. It is due to be launched soon, unless it is already in local showrooms and we were not told about it. Incidentally, this new version has already been on sale in China for a while now.
The unloved Kia Cerato is on its way to the grave. Not a bad car overall, it just couldn’t compete with the usual Japanese appliances. So much so that Kia has completely redesigned their new compact offering, now calling it the Forte.
The Kia Mohave is apparently for sale in the GCC already. We only find out about local Kia news through third-party sources, since the Kia’s regional reps generally suck at communication. I found out through a billboard on the street. We also believe the truck-based offroadable Mohave is only available in “280 hp” 3.8-litre V6 form. We already reported on the Mohave before. Anyway, I am using this opportunity to announce that from now on, I’ll start replacing the term “4WD” with the term “SUV” in reference to such vehicles.