Kia has announced plans to bring one new model to India in early 2022, making it its fourth offering since its entry in mid-2019.
The announcement was part of the new brand identity adopted by Kia in India under which it has dropped the word ‘Motors’ from its company name. India is Kia’s first international market to get the new brand identity.
Though Kia did not give details of the new model, the South Korean car brand confirmed that the launch will mark its entry into a new segment.
Kia has also lined up a refreshed Sonet and a face lifted Seltos for launch in May. Both models will sport the new Kia logo.
Hardeep Singh Brar, VP and head of Sales and Marketing, Kia India, said, “We are going to offer refreshed Seltos and Sonet early next month (May), some surprises in between and a new segment entry early next year”.
The Kia official further stated that plans are afoot to increase production at the company’s Anantapur plant in Andhra Pradesh to bring down the waiting period for its vehicles. The premium multi-purpose vehicle, Carnival, is the third Kia model in India.
Said Kookhyun Shim, MG and CEO, Kia India: “Once the customers have taken the first step and trusted our brand, we want to assure our commitment to significantly improve the delivery time of our vehicles. We will be working round the clock and will be starting the third shift at our Anantapur plant very soon.”
The plant, which currently has a capacity to produce 300,000 units per year and is operating in two shifts, has seen investments of $2 billion by Kia and its vendor partners.
The officials further added that in order to increase Kia’s footprint across the country, an additional 60 new touch points will be added before the end of the year to take the final tally to 360 touch points across 218 cities including Tier 3 and select Tier 4 towns.
The South Korean company clocked a growth of 83 percent in FY21 to 155,686 units as compared to 84,904 units sold in FY20. This made Kia close FY21 at the fifth spot in the passenger vehicle ranking, as per data supplied by the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
Kia claims that it is the fastest brand to hit sales of 250,000 in India. The company achieved the feat in 22 months.
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