Kia sold 72,307 cars and light trucks in export markets during May, a 23.5 per cent year-on-year increase, driven by demand for the Kia Carnival - Australia's number one people mover - as well as the newly launched Kia Sportage 4x4 and strong demand for the Kia Cerato.

By region, European sales in May rose by 52.9% year-on-year with 26,489 new Kias hitting the roads across the continent, while across the Atlantic in North America, 28,703 new Kias were delivered, up 2.6 per cent.

This strong May performance in overseas markets can be attributed to continued robust sales of the Europe-only Kia Picanto, the Kia Cerato and the Kia Carnival, which was the leading seller in non-domestic markets in the month of May, as well as the added boost provided by the popularity of the recently introduced Kia Sportage 4x4. During the first five months of 2005, Kia has seen its overseas retail sales and exports leap by 31.8 per cent and 30.9 per cent, respectively. So far this year Kia has sold a total of 324,192 vehicles outside its home market.

"Kia's continued impressive sales and export growth in overseas markets has us well positioned to achieve our 2005 target of reaching one million exports and US$10 billion in export revenue." says Mr. Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice President and COO of Kia Motors. "With the all-new Kia Rio set to arrive in showrooms in the third quarter and the all-new Kia Carnival expected to go on sale at the end of the year, Kia is looking forward to posting yet another record year!"