Oct 10, 2014 03:40 PM EDT
Chevrolet Spark Milestone: 1 Million Vehicles Sold Worldwide

Chevrolet has surpassed 1 million sales worldwide of the Spark and Bear, a big number for the mini cars.

The Spark first went on sale as the Beat in India in late 2009. Now the Spark is available in 71 markets worldwide, according to the automaker. The most Sparks are sold in South Korea, followed by the United States and Mexico.

Sales of the Spark in the U.S. are up 10 percent year to date.

"Our small cars - Spark, Sonic and Cruze - attract more new car buyers to Chevrolet than any other vehicles in the lineup, with more than 60 percent of buyers never owning a Chevy before," said Alan Batey, executive vice president of Global Chevrolet, according to the automaker.

Chevy confirmed that the Spark is popular among younger car buyers as well.

In 2014, sales of Chevrolet small cars have increased more than 9 percent for car buyers under the age of 35.

Chevy designed the Spark to come with features younger, connected buyers would want like an available MyLink infotainment system with a 7-inch diagonal color touch-screen display and available built-in OnStar 4G LTE, according to the automaker.

Built-in Wi-Fi hotspot allows occupants to connect up to seven devices at one time.  

The Spark was also the first car to feature Siri Eyes Free, which lets customers with iPhones running iOS 6 or higher to direct Siri to perform a number of tasks while keeping their eyes on the road.

The vehicle was the only vehicle in 2014 in the mini car segment to earn the IIHS Top Safety Pick designation as well.

"Spark's impressive performance in IIHS's most stringent test yet demonstrates the intensive efforts of our global safety team to deliver big safety in a small package," said Gay Kent, General Motors general director of Vehicle Safety and Crashworthiness, according to the automaker. "Spark's safety structure makes extensive use of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steels and its robust passenger protection package includes 10 standard air bags."

The Spark, which replaced Daewoo Motors Tico mini and was formerly called the Matiz Creative from 2009 through 2011, is mainly manufactured at the carmaker's Changwon plant, which isn't too far away from Seoul.

Complete knockdown kits made in South Korea are shipped to India and Uzbekistan for local assembly and sale, according to the automaker.

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