[TusharK]

Kia has achieved the sales milestone of 1.5 lakh units within just 14 months since the brand made its debut in the Indian market.



In October 2020, Kia registered the highest ever sales in a single month of 21,021 units. These included 11,721 units of the Sonet and 8,900 units of the Seltos. The carmaker registered a YoY growth of 64%.



The Sonet is the latest offering from Kia. It shares its underpinnings with the Hyundai Venue and competes in the sub-4 meter SUV segment with models like the Tata Nexon, Maruti Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport and the XUV300. According to Kia, there is massive demand for the Sonet and on average 2 vehicles are sold in India every 3 minutes.



Besides the Sonet and Seltos, Kia also offers the Carnival MPV in India. The carmaker sold 400 units of the premium MPV last month.

Link to Team-BHP News

[aniketi]

Right products at right time is the key here. Kia did really good study and entered into right segments. SUV's are real hot in India in last 3-4 years & they grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Companies like Honda, Toyota, VW etc. are decade or two old here and still ignored this super hot segment. Kia sensed the opportunity and grabbed it. Congratulations to Kia for the same.

Interesting to see if Kia gets any small car here & try to compete with Maruti. I am sure they must be thinking about same.

[ruturajv]

Sooner or later, Suzuki's share is going to reduce. The question is how much time? Come 10 years, Its not just the Korean twins but a few Indian manufacturers too would be gnawing. Tata, I'm pretty sure would be leading at the front (gauging by its current drive).

But then only time will tell. Who would've thought Tata would be the first real Electric car challenger ( at least mass appeal driving sales ) in India and the Koreans not the Germans would be driving a lot of 'premium-feel' demand.

Personally, I wish the market becomes a little fragmented as opposed the current monopolies like Google, FB and Amazon.

[NTO]

Living in Chennai, I assume the success of cars by the number of them I see on the road and the frequency at which I see them. In these lines, Seltos is a run off success to me and I have also started to see a fair share of Sonets on the road. Carnival though, was only limited to only the Kun Kia's test drive vehicles running around. However, in my recent highway trip, I saw at least 10 Carnivals of different colors on the expressways. This only makes sense as Carnival is not something that could easily be driven around in town, owing to its humongous dimensions. So, my assumption is that, all the Products of Kia have hit the sweet spot and doing justice to the brand's success here! Kudos and all the best to Kia's team for the future.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by aniketi

Interesting to see if Kia gets any small car here & try to compete with Maruti. I am sure they must be thinking about same.

Kia developed their main products along with their corresponding Hyundai siblings. Seltos along with new Creta and Sonet after Venue.

Kia had announced a new car launch every 6 months. Hopefully, Kia would be looking at the new i20 platform next. Just for the design language - Kia would be a better bet than Hyundai.

[chiefpk]

Voted a strong yes.

I have said this quite a few times, Hyundai/Kia is leading the market as a market leader and just not sitting like fools of the Maruti management. Maruti is just banking in their Alto's , Swift and Baleno's that is the under 10L segment while Hyundai is leading the sub 20L market. Their are issues that Hyundai needs to fix but as long as those issues are not reaching the customer, they will flock in. But I can definitely say that Kia is not going to surpass Tata anytime soon with just basically a 2 vehicle portfolio. They need to expand their model list and then only they can gain the no.3 position.

Tata on the other hand is confident of their current portfolio and with more launches like the Altroz automatic, HBX and the Gravitas lined up they may see the 30k monthly sales mark. Rather a strong outcome of their struggle and hardwork over the years. Rest depends on the Indian market.

Regards

Pranav

[fhdowntheline]

One good thing I see as a result of success for Kia, and possibly MG is that the average "car-per car" quotient would have increased, with more cars being sold above 10 lacs, than ever before.I would predict that the proportion of cars being sold in the lower price category (less than 10 lac) will less than 50 % in the near future.

[theAutomaniac]

Not a big feat to be very honest!

Kia is backed up by Hyundai and hence had the advantage!

Secondly, the segment they targeted to enter was drier than Thar desert! The only nearest competition to the Korean duo was the 6 year old S-Cross which was already rejected by uninformed Indians for a boat (1st gen Creta!), despite the former being a better product!

Their 3rd product, the Sonet again is an example of how desperate these guys are to take away market share from Maruti and build the sales! (Gotta applaud the research done by those non-enthusiastic uncles in the management for that!)

Also, Kia recently said that they would focus only on SUVs (Hatchbacks on stilts) and MPVs and won't launch hatchbacks and sedans in near future! Clearly shows that these guys always had just one motive, i.e. profits (The efforts reflect in the quality issues on their and their parent's newer cars as well!)

[Abhi5868]

Originally Posted by theAutomaniac

[B Clearly shows that these guys always had just one motive, i.e. PROFITS(The efforts reflect in the quality issues on their and their parent's newer cars as well!)

Can you name a single mass market manufacturer which produces cars for charity? The niggles are a part of product development. As for the segments one should target, there's a discipline called Market Research which every manufacturer has dedicated team for.

[headbanger]

Amazing success for Kia.
The wait worth its salt is if Kia manages to crack the segments where King Maruti has its name all over OR does the strategy of Kia remain not to challenge the king on its home turf and reap on the costlier segments.

[Sen]

Fit and finish, features, a compliant ride, the do-it-all nature of the seltos and sonet coupled with the luxurious highway mile munching that the carnival is capable of, and building that trust factor and introducing themselves with a bang to the Indian population with the right amount and quality of car for the segments and their wide variant spreads..

You gotta admit, even with Hyundai's market research leg-up, Kia did well for themselves despite the niggles that came up and the service being an unknown, they took a calculated dive into the Indian market and it played out well for them.

I have my misgivings for the brand, and the lack of a hatch/sedan segment from them means they lose out on the biggest mass market share of them all, but this top-down approach (which VW tried and failed at with their Jetta, Passat, et al) has worked for them so far. They came in guns blazing and even included all the engine and variant spreads you can dream of.

Truly excellent work from the brand, they treat the Indian customer base as just that, price sensitive, conscious of the brand image, and getting the best bang for their varied buck.

[landcruiser123]

Great achievement for a company that stated in 2019 and sold through 2020. These were pretty difficult years for most people and the auto industry in particular.

Originally Posted by theAutomaniac

Not a big feat to be very honest!
Kia is backed up by Hyundai and hence had the advantage!

True, can't deny that they had Hyundai's support. Still, credit where it is due as Kia executed their product launches perfectly.

Here are the missed opportunities for MSIL: (Despite being in India for the longest)
1. Vitara : 4.2m long SUV to compete head-on with Creta and Seltos
2. S-Cross AWD to compete with the Duster
Both these cars have the 1.4 Boosterjet (turbo-petrol), 1.6 diesel, AWD, & AT.

Secondly, the segment they targeted to enter was drier than Thar desert! The only nearest competition to the Korean duo was the 6 year old S-Cross which was already rejected by uninformed Indians

The S-Cross doesn't have an automatic or petrol. The 1.3 diesel was OKAY and the 1.6 diesel was difficult to drive in B2B traffic. When Hyundai was offering a product with more convenience, most people wouldn't pick the S-Cross.

Their 3rd product, the Sonet again is an example of how desperate these guys are to take away market share from Maruti

Except for Maruti-fanboyism, I fail to understand the rationale behind such a statement. Competition is good for a free-market and we will see new (& better) products in a segment.

For Example:
1. Didn't Maruti launch the Ciaz to "take away" (or compete for) market share form Honda City?
2. Didn't Maruti launch the Baleno to "take away" (or compete for) market share from Hyundai i20?
3. Doesn't Samsung launch a new smartphone every year to "take away" (or compete for) market share from Apple's new iPhone?

Also, Kia recently said that they would focus only on SUVs(Hatchbacks on stilts) and MPVs and won't launch hatchbacks and sedans in near future! Clearly shows that these guys always had just one motive, i.e. PROFITS

No company is here to do social service. They all want to make a profit. As customers, we should lobby for greater safety standards & better consumer protection laws. Quoting my other post for a possible growth strategy:

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

I'd love to see Hyundai + Kia build a brand by getting a good foothold in the more premium segments (Tucson, Santa Fe, Palisade/Telluride, Elantra/Optima, Stinger etc) and then come to the volumes segment when mass EVs are ready for adoption.

[fhdowntheline]

I dont know what is this comment about Hyundai backing. They share platforms, engines ( like Renault-Nissan) but this is not like Kia is using Hyundai’s dealerships or service stations. They are completely independent from manufacturing , distribution and from a customer standpoint and even compete very well against their cousin. So kudos to their team.

[fearless_IN]

Originally Posted by aniketi

Companies like Honda, Toyota, VW etc. are decade or two old here and still ignored this super hot segment.

Rightly said by you, it has been more than 7 years, since compact SUV segmented started with the arrival of Duster and Ecosport.
Honda and Toyota is unable to develop any model for this segment in last 8 years, and no future news in the market as well.

It shows, their lazy attitude toward Indian Market and they have taken for granted the Indian Customers. In my opinion, they feel that, whatever they make, customer will buy it.

Thanks to Hyundai and Kia, to align their offerings with the customer needs. And we all can see the results. The theory that we all study in Management stands true "Respect the customer, gain the business."

[theAutomaniac]

First things first! Seems like a lot of BHPians have been hurt by my innocent post and they have taken offence
I'm sorry if I have hurt anyone's sentiments!

Originally Posted by Abhi5868

Can you name a single mass market manufacturer which produces cars for charity? The niggles are a part of product development.)

According to what I believe, no level of product development can justify issues with brakes of a car! If a carmaker has issues with the brakes, it is a clear case of the manufacturer being too busy counting money without caring about their customer!

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Great achievement for a company that stated in 2019 and sold through 2020. These were pretty difficult years for most people and the auto industry in particular.


True, can't deny that they had Hyundai's support. Still, credit where it is due as Kia executed their product launches perfectly.

Here are the missed opportunities for MSIL: (Despite being in India for the longest)
1. Vitara : 4.2m long SUV to compete head-on with Creta and Seltos
2. S-Cross AWD to compete with the Duster
Both these cars have the 1.4 Boosterjet (turbo-petrol), 1.6 diesel, AWD, & AT.
The S-Cross doesn't have an automatic or petrol. The 1.3 diesel was OKAY and the 1.6 diesel was difficult to drive in B2B traffic. When Hyundai was offering a product with more convenience, most people wouldn't pick the S-Cross.

Buddy, this is exactly what I meant when I said "drier than the Thar desert"!

Back in 2014, Maruti clearly messed up when they gave us the S-Cross instead of the Vitara! And if that wasn't enough, they messed up again by launching it without any petrol motor!

Today if you see, the S-Cross does an average of 3000 monthly sales, which is pretty good for a mediocre product the S-Cross has become!

Except for Maruti-fanboyism, I fail to understand the rationale behind such a statement. Competition is good for a free-market and we will see new (& better) products in a segment.

I fail to understand how did you even assume that this post was made by a fanboy!

This statement is not mine, but Hyundai's recent actions are an absolute representation of the same! My point would be better represented by this Motorbeam article- link

No company is here to do social service. They all want to make a profit.

Yes no company is here to do charity and all of them need profits to survive. However, Hyundai in my opinion, is taking the customer for granted in their race of making profits and taking market share!

Let me give you an example of the same-

Earlier Hyundai cars (before 2017) were extremely reliable and they had top notch customer support. However, what is the case nowadays?? Nowadays, they are only focusing on selling more products instead of delivering products which have more quality!

In today's era, Hyundai cars have a lot of quality issues even with basic things like brakes! These issues were never heard of even in some of the most unreliable cars globally! Why do you think these issues are coming up from a brand whose cars never had an issue earlier?? Has their management become inefficient? No! They've just become cunning and greedy!

The issue here is, I do not hate Hyundai, but I'm hating the fact that they are exploiting the customer to the core!

I'll give another example!

What is the feature list of the 9.5 lakh costing S-Cross 1.5 Delta?? Whatever it is, it is much more than what is of the near 11 lakh costing Kia Seltos HTK 1.5 petrol!

Most of the brands offer basic features like rear wash and wipe, cruise control, automatic cruise control, adjustable rear headrests, alloy wheels, electrically adjustable ORVMs etc. right from the base variants in this segment! Heck even the 9 lakh costing Ciaz and S-Cross Delta get them!

Whereas, Hyundai-Kia offer their lower trims stripped and then give all of these in the higher trims, which are exorbitantly priced and the customer is forced to buy the higher variants!

Heck the lower variants of the Seltos, Carnival do not even get the likes of ESP and hill hold control which are offered as standard even on the likes of the Tata Nexon, Ford Ecosport, Brezza (auto) and Dzire(auto) which sit much lower than the Seltos and Carnival do not!

And, now read your own statement quoted here-

As customers, we should lobby for greater safety standards & better consumer protection laws.

Now tell me, aren't Hyundai-Kia doing exactly opposite of what is needed to be done for healthy competition and benefit of the customer?

The post became too long :lol