Kia Motors Corp. captured its highest share of the Chinese market in six years in November, gaining momentum in the world’s most populous market, company officials said Friday,

Kia posted a China market share of 4.1 percent last month, the largest since October 2005 when it reached 4.7 percent.

Kia achieved record China sales of 45,768 units last month with the newly launched mid-sized sedan K2 leading the way, the officials said.

The K2, also known as the Rio in the U.S. and European markets, hit showrooms in China in July and has proven a big hit with sales exceeding the 10,000 mark in September.

Market watchers expect that the company will be able to sustain its strong momentum in China with its third plant in China expected to start commercial production in the second half of 2014.

Earlier this month, Kia’s sales in China surpassed the 400,000 mark this year, marking the company’s best ever sales figure in the world’s largest car market.

The automaker has become the eight-largest carmaker in China in terms of the number of units sold, the Kia officials said.

Kia also said Friday that its Morning has been named the best city car by a French automotive magazine.

The car, sold in the European market as the Picanto, ranked first in its segment in the 2012 Passenger Car Award sponsored by L’argus, the carmaker said.

“L’argus lauded the car’s roomy interior, excellent safety and wide range of options that is more than enough to satisfy consumers,” Kia said. “The magazine rated the car as having superior handling characteristics and quality compared to rivals in the same class.”

Besides the Morning, L’argus rated Volkswagen’s “up!” and Toyota’s Yaris as the top three in the city car segment.

The evaluation was carried out by market researchers and reporters with extensive experience in automobile-related news.

Areas checked were performance, price, operating costs and residual value.

The French award comes after the Morning was named the best foreign-made small city car by Germany’s Auto Bild magazine in August.

Sales of the car, meanwhile, reached 50,000 units in the first 11 months of this year, with demand expected to get a boost from the latest review. 

(Yonhap News)