With the global pandemic shutting down production and car sales plummeting, it's been a challenging time for the auto industry, to say the least. Thankfully, the situation is slowly starting to improve. In the US, Mazda's July US sales were up in 2020 compared to 2019, as were Hyundai's thanks primarily to the Palisade SUV.

Now, Kia has released its US retail July 2020 sales, and the figures are surprising. Despite the pandemic, Kia sold 52,479 vehicles in total in the US. According to the Korean manufacturer, this is Kia's "highest July retail-only total in company history. "

"In the middle of the pandemic Kia posted the largest year-over-year retail-only volume increase in the industry as demand for our six utility vehicles continues to grow," said Bill Peffer, vice president, sales operations, Kia Motors America. "Kia's momentum has allowed us to gain share and we are confident that the all-new K5 and Telluride Nightfall Edition, combined with several new product launches scheduled for the coming months, will continue the brand's upward trajectory."

Kia's top-selling models in July were the Sorento and Sportage SUVs. Sales for the Kia Telluride SUV also increased by 68.3-percent over the last month as production resumed at Kia's US manufacturing plant in Georgia.

The Sportage also enjoyed its best-ever July retail sales with 7,939 units sold, while the Seltos had its best sales month yet with 4,504 units. Kia's worst-selling model in July, on the other hand, was the K900 at just 25 units, down from 31 in July 2019. This was closely followed by the Cadenza, with 100 units sold in July 2020 compared to 75 in July 2019.

Following its debut last month, partial sales for the new Kia K5 totaled 1,268 vehicles in July. Ahead of the fastback sedan's upcoming refresh, retail sales of the Stinger amounted to 1,427 units in July, up from 1,092 in the same month last year.