Kia Motors Corp. said Monday recreational vehicles accounted for more than 50 percent of its overall sales in the January-August period this year.

Over the eight months, Kia sold 296,280 passenger vehicles in the domestic market. RVs accounted for 51.7 percent of that total, or 153,255 units, a company spokesman said.

Going forward, the country's second-biggest carmaker plans to strengthen its product lineup with upgraded or new RVs to meet growing consumer demand, he said.

RVs include sport utility vehicles and vans such as the Carnival minivan. 


In the 1999-2005 period, RVs accounted for around 50 to 60 percent of Kia's domestic sales. But in the past 10 years, sedans such as the K5, K7 and K9 have played a greater role in boosting the carmaker's sales.

Kia also saw the ratio of RV sales in the United States rise in the first eight months of this year to 59.6 percent, or 405,462 autos, from 56.5 percent a year earlier, the spokesman said.

From January to August, Kia sold a total of 1.76 million autos in global markets, down 7.8 percent from 1.91 million units in the same period a year earlier due to a lack of new models and lower demand from China. (Yonhap)