Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s No. 2 automaker, said Thursday that U.S. sales of its iconic Soul boxy compact topped the half-million mark a little over five years after its debut in early 2009.

As of last month, 509,854 Souls were sold in the North American country, the company said, stressing that the popularity of the entry-level crossover played a key part in the carmaker’s record-high sales figure reached in the first half of the year.

Kia’s U.S. sales were up 7 percent on-year to 297,413 units in the first six months of this year, the highest since the carmaker entered the market 20 years ago.

In the first year of its launch, the car, designed by Kia’s design studio in California, reported sales of 31,621 units, with the number rising to 67,110 in the following year before soaring to 102,267 vehicles in 2011. (Yonhap)