With its four offerings (Seltos, Sonet, Carens and Carnival), Kia has been doing really well in India. It’s the quickest brand to achieve the 3 lakh sales milestone in the domestic automotive market. The brand started its Indian operations in August 2019 and it crossed first 1 lakh milestone in July 2020, the next one lakh in January 2021, the third lakh in August 2021 and the fourth lakh in February 2022. It has exported one lakh cars to 91 different global markets.
Now, the South Korean automaker expects to produce 3-3.5 lakh units (including exports) in India by the end of this year. It will be around 10 percent to its global production in 2022. With this achievement, Kia will become the quickest automaker to reach annual production milestone in the country. Last year, the company’s Anantapur based facility in Andhra Pradesh contributed 8 percent to its total global output. It plans to increase share to 9.5 percent by the end of 2022.
Recently, Kia has commenced a third shift in its manufacturing plant to ramp-up production and reduce waiting period of its models. At present, the company has over 75,000 pending orders with waiting period of up to 3-6 months. The South Korean automaker registered high revenue and profitability within two years of its market existence. In fiscal year 2021, the company earned a profit after paying tax of Rs 1,111 crore.
In fresh updates, Kia trademarked the EV6 electric crossover in India. Globally, the model is sold with two battery packs – 58kWh and 77.4kWh – transmitting power to the rear-mounted motor. While the former makes 167bhp with 349Nm, the latter is good for 225bhp and 349Nm. On a single charge, te 77.4kWh battery pack with AWD and RWD drivetrain system deliver range of 441km and 500km respectively. The global-spec Kia EV6 comes with several advanced features including Level 2 Highway Autonomy driving and Highway Driving Assist 2.
Info Source – ETAuto
