Pro Plus

India the new volume growth driver for Kia Motors

Korean automaker bullish about long-term growth from its youngest market with increased domestic market sales and made-in-India vehicle exports from the country.

By Mayank Dhingra

06 Jan 2021

17909 Views

The Seltos, which is seeing strong global demand, was Kia’s second best-selling vehicle in 2020 with 328,128 units. India, with 91,324 units sold from January-November 2020, was a strong contributor.

In the past Covid-impacted year, Kia has registered growth only in its home market of Korea and in India.

Kia had targeted a 6% PV market share in India by Q4 FY2020. It now has a 6.03% share, which makes it the No. 3 in India, after Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra. In UVs, at No. 3, it has a 16.02% share.

On September 18, 2020, Kia India launched its Sonet compact SUV which is seeing a strong market response. In just 3 months, till end-November, Sonet sales were 32,404 units.

Kia Motors India plans to hit full-capacity utilisation in 2022 with 201,000 units in domestic market and 99,000 units in exports, and 110,000 units in 2023.

Kia has a strategic export strategy. In FY2020, Kia Motors India exported 21,461 units and, in the April-November 2020 period, has shipped 23,963 units.

After registering a 5.9 decline in its CY2020 global sales due to serious challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Kia Motors is preparing a brand transformation in 2021, based on its ‘Plan S’ business strategy.

The Korean automaker registered cumulative sales of 2.61 million units in 2020, but is now targeting to sell 2.92 million units this year. The number includes a substantial volume of the sales coming from overseas markets which are projected to garner 2.39 million units over and above the 535,000 units being targeted from home market within Korea. India, its youngest global market, is expected ...

This is an Autocar Pro Plus article. Subscribe to continue reading.