The brand saw a sharp increase in H1 sales in North America, with sales up by 41% to 278,199. The Chinese market increased by 19% to 203,440 and in Europe the total sales of 228,130 represented a 17.2% increase. The Korean domestic market sales total increased during the first half by almost 9% to 248,345 and general markets increased by almost 15% to 246,003.

Kia's best selling car in the first six months was the Forte C-segment car followed by the Sportage, Rio, Sorento and Soul.

Thomas Oh, senior executive vice president and COO of Kia Motors Corporation, said: 'Our June sales were quite encouraging as it allowed us to surpass the one million unit global sales mark by quite a wide margin and that puts us well on track to reach our 2011 global target of 2.345 million.

'As we go into the second half we expect our new Picanto and Rio models to contribute strongly as they arrive in showrooms around the world and additionally I believe we will benefit from the start of production of the all-new Optima at our Georgia production plant in the United States.'