Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Wednesday its on-year vehicle sales jumped 18 percent in India last month on demand for its multipurpose model.

Kia sold 22,622 vehicles in India last month, marking the biggest monthly sales figure since it entered the emerging market in August 2019, according to the company's sales data.

The result was helped by increased sales of the Carens MPV. Sales of the Carens jumped to 7,008 units in March from 5,109 in February and 575 in January, the data showed.

Kia has a 300,000 unit-a-year plant in India and sells the Seltos subcompact SUV, Sonet compact SUV and the Carnival minivan in the world's second-most populous nation.

The maker of the K5 sedan and the Sorento SUV aims to sell 243,000 autos in India this year, up 34 percent from the 182,000 units it sold last year.

It has eight domestic plants in Korea and seven overseas ones -- three in China and one each in the United States, Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units.

In 2022, Kia aims to sell 3.15 million vehicles globally, 13 percent higher than its sales of 2.78 million last year.

From January to March, its sales fell 0.7 percent to 685,358 units from 689,990 during the same period of last year. (Yonhap)