Kia's Oct. sales rise 8.6 pct despite chip shortage

SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- Kia Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Tuesday its sales rose 8.6 percent last month from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.

Kia sold a total of 238,660 vehicles in October, up from 219,836 units a year ago on robust overseas demand for its SUV models, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales climbed 14 percent on-year to 43,032 units last month from 37,837, while exports were up 7.5 percent to 195,628 from 181,999 during the cited period on higher demand for the Sportage, Sorento and Seltos SUVs, it said.

From January to October, sales rose 2.6 percent to 2,410,246 autos from 2,348,246 units during the same period of last year.

Kia aims to sell 3.15 million vehicles globally this year.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
(END)