It’s heartening to see a newbie fair quite so well in what is established as a particularly difficult period for the Indian auto industry. While old players are gauging market sentiment and working on strategies on how to make the most of the market, Kia Motors India has gone on to show how it’s done.
Having showcased a full range of vehicles at the 2018 Auto Expo, launch for its first offering in India was scheduled late in August 2019. It helps that they entered the market just in time for some festive fervour. With how the company shapes up in India hinging quite literally on a single product, Kia Seltos, they’ve gone the full distance with guns blazing.
Who knew after about 2 full months and a week of sales, Kia Seltos will manage to get 60k+ bookings. In the same period, backed by their world class production plan, Kia Motors India has sold 26,840 units of Seltos. In August, 6,236 units sold. In September that number increased to 7,754 units. In October that number shot through the roof at 12,850 units.
Kia Seltos is now the no 1 selling mid-sized SUV in India. On the 2nd spot is Hyundai Creta, with 7,269 units sold, while on 3rd spot is Mahindra Scorpio with 4,628 units sold. MG Hector took the 4th spot with 3,536 units sold. Just like Seltos, this was also the highest monthly sales reported by Hector.
On the 5th spot is Mahindra XUV500 with 1,378 units sold. Maruti S-Cross followed with 1,356 units and then came Tata Harrier with 1,258 units on the 7th spot. On the 8th spot is Jeep Compass with 854 units sold, 9th is Renault Duster with 622 units followed by Nissan Kicks on 10th spot with 313 units sold.
On the 11th spot is Renault Captur with 222 units sold in Oct 2019. On 12th is Tata Safari Storme with 165 units and on 13th is Nissan Terrano with 1 unit sold. In total, 34,262 units were sold in between these 13 SUVs last month. This was a growth of 39% as against Oct 2018, when 24,617 units were sold.
Kia Seltos sales in October has put the auto manufacturer in a unique place as the 5th largest carmaker for the month. Kia Seltos is available in three BSVI compliant engine options. The 1.5-litre petrol engine returns 115 PS and 144 Nm of torque, 1.5-litre VGT diesel returns 115 PS and 250 Nm of torque, and 1.4-litre Turbo GDI petrol engine returns 140 PS and 242 Nm of torque.
All are paired with a 6-speed manual gearbox. The 1.5-litre petrol units gets IVT, 1.5-litre VGT diesel engine gets 6-speed AT, and 1.4-litre Turbo GDI petrol gets 7-speed DCT. The vehicle range is available at an entry price point of Rs 9.69 lakh (ex-sh, Delhi).
