Kia Says No To Sedans, Focus Remains On SUVs And MPVs For India
The demand for SUVs and MPVs has steered Kia away from introducing sedans in India
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In a recent interaction with Kia India’s leadership, Tae-Jin Park, Chief Sales and Business Strategy Officer, said, “We are not considering any kind of sedan segment in the Indian market. We have not considered so far.”
We were expecting the carmaker to at least bring the Stinger, one of its popular global models, to India. However, Kia has said it wants to focus on the SUV and MPV segments as they are gaining popularity among new car buyers.
The carmaker has some popular sedans in its global portfolio, such as the Rio (Hyundai Verna-equivalent), Kia Cerato/Forte (Hyundai Elantra-equivalent), and K8/Optima (Skoda Superb-equivalent), which could have been promising products for our market. That said, Kia’s skepticism towards the sedan segment seems justified since SUVs have been drawing previous sedan buyers.
Kia entered the Indian market in 2019 and it presently has three models on sale: the Seltos, the Carnival, and the Sonet. Even before the Carnival and Sonet were launched, the Seltos had garnered enough demand to push Kia to fourth position on the sales charts in India. The arrival of the MPV and sub-4m SUV only helped the carmaker retain the spot. Kia says it has sold over 2.5 lakh cars in less than two years of its operations.
As far as new launches are concerned, Kia has announced it will introduce the refreshed Seltos and Sonet in May as well as debut in a new segment by early-2022. We expect this model to be a 7-seater SUV based on the Seltos. The carmaker could also launch the limited run Gravity Edition of the Seltos soon.
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