[TusharK]

Kia has announced that it has sold over 3 lakh units of Seltos in less than 3-years. The carmaker claims to have achieved this feat in record time.



The Seltos is the most popular model in Kia India's line-up, accounting for almost 60% of its total sales. The company has also exported 1,03,033 units of the Seltos to more than 91 countries till date.

According to Kia, 58% of the Seltos sales came from its top variants, while majority of Kia customers chose the HTX Petrol variant. The automatic versions contributed around 25%, and 1 out of 10 Seltos buyers opted for the iMT clutchless manual transmission. Also, around 46% of the customers preferred the diesel variants of the Seltos.

The Kia Seltos is offered with three engine options. These include a 1.5-litre petrol, 1.4-litre turbo-petrol and a 1.5-litre diesel engine. Earlier this month, the SUV was upgraded with 6 airbags and rear disc brakes, which now come as standard.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Kosfactor]

Since I often get to drive a base variant seltos diesel , I understand why people love it. There is an obsessive level of attention to refinement on all controls, it is quite unbelievable for the money.

Seltos would be easily my choice in this segment, no doubt.

[Nalin1]

This is just a magnificent achievement by KIA!

Walked into bat and started smashing everything from the middle and continuing.

Yes their cars have some shortcomings like the Sonet's rear seat, for example, but overall absolutely brilliantly packaged cars with a choice for each one's liking.

How to succeed in India by KIA .

[Ram22693]

This will surely be a case study in IIMs soon. Irrespective of what different people think about the car, it's an amazing achievement for a new entrant in the Indian market.

[sandeepmdas]

That is a bad advert if you ask me. Instead of writing 3 Lakh they should have written it properly as 300,000.

Then the people in suits who headed Fiat, Ford, GM, Mitsubishi etc. wouldn't have difficulty comprehending it. I mean, they can simply count the zeros. I mean they won't or can't simply skip reading Indian English just like they skipped reading the Indian market.

Now the impact won't sink in. Opportunity wasted, but it will come again. Waiting for the 500,000 milestone ad to come up.

[Knightrider]

Kudos to Kia! This is a big achievement being a new entrant in India.

With Seltos, they showed exactly how well they knew the Indian consumers and what they really see while buying a car.

And let's not mock people for their preferences. There is another 'Classic' SUV from Indian manufacturer with zero star crash test rating being relaunched as a face-lift. And that is equally or more popular than Seltos among the masses.

[heavenlybull]

Not surprised at the impressive numbers, as Kia is essentially Hyundai after the takeover. And we all know how well Hyundai's grasp of the Indian market has been, from the very start.

Right now the only major chink in their armour is the average safety of the vehicles. Otherwise, brilliant engines and overall engeneering, super-reliable and feature loaded cars. We've had Santro, Getz, and Grand i10 and can vouch for their reliability over the years. Now driving a Carens since a couple of months, and I realize why people throng to Hyundai\Kia showrooms.

[deathwalkr]

Walked into a Maruti showroom to take a look at the brezza. No cars on display and I had to find someone to enquire and they said "we will take you to the yard a few kms away if you really want to take a look"!

Needless to say I said no thanks and walked out.

Walked into a Kia showroom, was welcomed and guided to a seat and was informed that someone will be with me shortly and was offered tea/coffee as well.

After a few minutes, a sales executive came and first thing he asked was if i needed any refreshments. Then we started talking about the cars. Had a looksee and got a TD done as well.

Just speaks for itself doesn't it

[karanddd]

Not surprising. It's just a really nice car. Props to Kia no doubt, but I don't think there is any special information that Kia has about the Indian customer or market that other manufacturers do not have. It's just that for the money, the car they offer is nicer, feels higher quality, than whatever their competitors are offering. The Koreans don't really have any genuine competition in the premium SUV segment (pls don't come at with me brickbats about how calling them SUVs is incorrect - I don't care!) If Honda or Toyota or even Suzuki could make as nice of a car for this amount of money, they would make it and try to sell it. But they probably can't. For 30 lakhs sure, maybe, but then that can't sell in our still very poor country.

[Bhupesh_2628]

Now that the base variant gets 6 airbags, the sales will improve further by a huge margin. It's a very good step taken by Kia.

I guess Kia is the first manufacturer to implement 6 airbags starting from the base variant.

[Benoit]

This is a well deserved achievement. Kia's strategy and market has resulted in the success of all their products. All manufacturers should learn from Kia on market study. Also, Kia is the hope for us and other global manufacturer to try their hands on India.

The differentiation from Creta was not like the difference between duster and terrano, or baleno and glanza. Seltos had it own identity, looks and style. Kudos to Kia.

[Old_Salt]

The moment I saw this piece in the latest news, I knew it. Another long drawn-out conversation with the safety ratings being highlighted vs the numbers Kia has done.
But let's call a spade a 3-star rating. Another spade is the 3 lakh sales.
They are not aloof. Forces of demand and supply, although they are governed by a lot of factors, the benjamins are the underlying strength.
Yes, they will put 6 airbags in an unstable body shell because they were asked. And yes because they were not asked to make structurally strong/stable cars, they will not make them.
So let us congratulate Kia for achieving this milestone and also continue to raise our voices for better and safer cars.

[tirumalavoleti]

leaving the safety difference between the same brand/model from other countries, excellent management use case for market research, quality factors for mass, production line setup, logistics and importantly profitability timeline. Truly a master piece of history made in India

[harry10]

Kudos to KIA.
When MG came I thought they will be shaking our market but in actual it's KIA which showed how to capture Indian market and it's people in such a short span of time.

Let's look at my case scenario.
I wanted a Diesel Automatic at max 15 lac budget.
What options I had.

Brezza used to come with an AMT and didn't convert to BS6.

XUV300 again with an AMT with not a good interior although the safety rating is top class.

Nexon again with an AMT with 5 star rating. I was still considering it however my wife who actually works with Tata Motors straight away said we won't have another Tata ( we already have a Tiago). She knows pretty well how the A.S.S is and how many complaints they get daily. In fact my neighbors wanted a Safari so they approached her for advice and she told them not to get it due to lots of complaints they receive.

So, what option remained. Sonet Diesel with proper Torque Converter gearbox and not an AMT. Its still the only one providing it in the segment. Safety rating won't go more than 3 for sure. But other than that it does everything well and A.S.S has been excellent so far.

Sonet and Seltos have almost every model for individual priority and most people can relate to them. Engine, exterior, interior, features, after sales. They have nailed them. 5 star Safety is the only constraint which can only come if govt. imposes strict regulations.

[Col Mehta]

Kia India - 3 lakhs Seltos within 3 years is big, well done and congratulations! Give us better safety in your cars and you will see bigger numbers and growth.