Team-BHP - Kia Motors coming to India

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamminbobin (Post 4121925)

According to this piece on Autocar, the Kia Sportage SUV and the Kia Soul crossover have been spotted in India - with temporary WB plates.

http://www.autocarindia.com/auto-new...ia-403863.aspx

Is the launch imminent?

WB number plates ?? That's interesting. :)

I guess they are there to be tested, if at all, in the hills of north Bengal being an SUV/cross over.

It will be interesting to see how they price them here. They are related to Hyundai in a similar way how Skoda is to Volkswagen and here in India they are having an identity crisis. Skoda sells higher segment cars and Volkswagen sells entry level cars.

I love current Hyundai cars sold in India but if I have to choose between them and Kia simply based on design I will choose Kia 70-80% of the time. There interior design is simple, elegant an intuitive all at the same time.

Rumour: Kia's first factory to be set up in Andhra Pradesh

Kia Motors is reportedly close to finalising the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as the site of its first manufacturing facility in India. As per media reports, the Korean automaker will likely be confirming the final site in Ananthapur district by the end of this month.

Kia has been in talks with various states for setting up its production facility in the country. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were the front runners to get Kia on-board. The latter clearly seems to have offered a lucrative proposition to the Korean automaker, thus succeeding in bringing its production facility to the state's kitty. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu is home to Hyundai Motor Co., Kia's affiliate brand.

The Andhra Pradesh state government has reportedly offered around 600 acres of land to the automaker for setting up its manufacturing facility. The exact location of the factory hasn't been finalised yet. Kia is aiming to start producing small cars through the said facility from July 2019.

Source: Reuters

Link to Team-BHP News

While I certainly like KIA's current design language and welcome the move to India, I would be a bit watchful of the pricing. Hyundai's positioning will not be jeopardized and therefore I assume KIA will be brought in as a premium brand. People who know KIA will not accept the premium positioning despite having premium looks. This is where it is all going to be complicated. I hope the portfolio mix complements Hyundai and not compete. I would love to see the Soul, Sportage and the Sorento. They all look great. Esp the new Sorento which has a clean chiselled look. love it.

Few weeks back I met a representative from a Japanese logistics company in Chennai and he said that Kia were scouting for land in Sriperumbudur (near Hyundai factory) and Mahindra world city in Ponneri in north Chennai. Sri City's flexible incentives, availability of vast land and quick licence approval should have favored Kia. Isuzu and Kobelco also favored Sri City over Chennai for the same reason back then.

Though Hyundai and Kia share similar platform and engineering, Kia is considered to be the entry level brand of Hyundai and there is very little to differentiate them from quality surveys.

Quote:

Albert Biermann, the former BMW M engineering boss who now heads up Kia and Hyundai’s vehicle test and high performance development, has revealed how he plans to differentiate the feel of the Kia and Hyundai models.

“Kia is sporty and young, but still provide good ride comfort and NVH levels but still fun to drive."

“Hyundai is a little bit more mature and luxurious with more of a focus on the styling and elegance, perhaps a little more focus on NVH and ride comfort, too."

Kia Motors might be investing close to Rs 10,000 crores for it's first-ever Indian setup at Penukonda, Andhra Pradesh. This will make the project one of the biggest ever, in terms of foreign direct investments in India.

The Anantpur district-based Kia plant will have an initial production capacity of 3 lakh units per annum, and the first Kia car (codenamed SP2) might roll out by 2019.

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“The car manufacturing facility, a first for Andhra Pradesh, will involve two phases with a cumulative investment of $1.6 billion, or Rs 10,300 crore, with first phase of investment amounting to about Rs 6,000 crore,” said one of the persons mentioned above. “The first phase of the production facility will have an installed capacity to produce 3 lakh units a year.”

An executive supplying to Hyundai Motor India said: “We have already been intimated about understanding the logistics cost to Anantapur and accordingly quote the pricing in the future. They are yet to float the RFQ, but they are likely to have a portfolio of cars, including a small car, a sedan, and an SUV,” said the executive, requesting anonymity.

Another Hyundai vendor that may also supply to Kia said the company has started discussing a project in South Korea codenamed SP2, which is likely to make an SUV in the same segment as Hyundai Creta and may be based on the same architecture.

The vehicle may hit the market in 2019.

ET Auto

I must say i am impressed with KIA. KIA started off in USA as a low end budget car with plenty of faults and defects. 15 years ago in USA, Kia was considered to be a shitty vehicle. People used to make fun of it and it was considered bad to even get a KIA vehicle as a gift.

Now, within a span of 15 years, KIA seems to be among the most reliable cars in USA. Goes to show that where there is a will , there is a way.

Now, i start to ponder on our desi brands like TATA and Mahindra who despite having huge advantage in terms of heavy taxes implemented on CBU and imports , just struggle when it comes to providing premium quality.

We consumers pay lot more for cars in India when compared to USA. For example Honda Accord in USA costs anything between USD 22,000 - 35000.
$22,000 in USA is not even remotely close to what 13L means in India. $22,000 is maybe 4 months of salary for a junior- mid resource. An inferior version of Accord sells from 37L -45L in India.

This is where Tata's ,Mahindra's etc have a big advantage. Yet, model after model, time and time again they seem to release products with plenty of bugs and lower quality parts.

IF huge import duty tax was not on the vehicles from outside India, these 2 would have been washed out by now.

I think we should stop shielding people and let competition decide survival of the fittest. This protectionism doesn't really help. Be it in automotive sector or other sectors

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Originally Posted by dreadknight5 (Post 4183777)

I think we should stop shielding people and let competition decide survival of the fittest. This protectionism doesn't really help. Be it in automotive sector or other sectors

Totally :OT - but governments shall (or should) always try to safeguard the interests of the people they are governing. Case in point - the USA immigration issue.
Indian automotive restrictions are there for a reason - so that manufacturers set up auto manufacturing factories in India and provide jobs to thousands of employees.
Unless free trade becomes a (guaranteed) worldwide phenomenon, I see no reason why the trade restrictions that India has in place should be lifted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackasta (Post 4183867)

Yeah, my last statement can be considered offtopic. But that's the logical conclusion I arrived at.

USA immigration benefits US citizens ( albeit it is highly debatable considering the US unemployment rate is sub 2-3% in IT). But over here who is being benefited ? We consumers are certainly not benefiting. And we are a bigger number than the ones being employed in factories , which by the way runs lot on robots.

I am all for trade restrictions, but this cannot be 1 way street right ? Make it tough for international players to come in, but don't short change the public that pays for the vehicles. There needs to be some process setup , which punishes the Indian manufacturer for poor quality products that avails advantages of protectionism.

At this point of time , we are shoved with vehicles that are lower in quality when compared to international standards and are being to shell 3x the amount.