South Korean automaker, Kia had opened bookings for the new Carens MPV on January 14, 2022. Launched on February 15, 2022, the new 3-row Kia Carens has already recorded over 30,000 bookings. Previous reports claim that diesel variants account for close to 50 percent of total bookings. In fact, the higher variants & automatic versions are also in high demand.
Kia has recently started 3rd shift & hired more workers at its Anantpur production facility in Andhra Pradesh. Kia already had a pending bookings of 75,000 vehicles with waiting period around 3-6 months. With new Carens, the waiting period is expected to be further increased in near future. In order to meet the rising demand, Kia aims to further increase its production capacity.
The Kia Carens currently has a waiting period between 14 to 50 weeks in select region. The company believes that the semiconductor supplies might get better from the second quarter of 2022. This will help in increasing the production capacity to meet the rising demand.
Kia Carens Details
The Carens is available in 5 trims – Premium, Prestige, Prestige Plus, Luxury and Luxury Plus. The petrol version is priced between Rs 8.99 lakh and Rs 16.99 lakh, while the diesel Carens is tagged at Rs 10.99 lakh for base variant and Rs 16.99 lakh for the top-end variant.
The new Kia Carens MPV is offered in 3 engine options – a 1.5-litre NA petrol, a 1.5L turbo-diesel and a 1.4L turbocharged petrol. The naturally-aspirated petrol engine is good for 113bhp and 144Nm of torque, while the turbo-diesel engine produces 113bhp and 250Nm of torque. The turbo-charged petrol engine is capable of producing 138bhp and 242Nm of torque. Transmission choices include a 6-speed manual, a 6-speed torque convertor automatic with 1.5L diesel and a 7-speed DCT with 1.4L.
The petrol version is claimed to return an ARAI certified fuel economy of 16.5kmpl, while the diesel return 21.3kmpl. In terms of proportions, the new Kia Carens MPV is 4,540mm long, 1800mm wide and 1700mm tall and has a wheelbase of 2,780mm. The Carens has the longest wheelbase in its segment. In fact, the Carens have 30mm longer wheelbase than the Toyota Innova Crysta.
Source – ET Auto
