One of the most awaited launches of this year was the Kia Seltos. Teased last year at the Auto Expo, the Seltos has turned out to be a massive hit. The faith reposed in an a new manufacturer and product has been overwhelming. The company in fact didn’t anticipate such a great response. However, the response meant that there was a delay in deliveries. The massive waiting periods of the Kia Seltos is something that prospective customers have to deal with currently. Kia India says that in September 2019, an additional shift was added at the Anantapur facility. This has enabled the Korean carmaker to roll out around 12,000 vehicles starting from the last couple of months. The previous number was around 6,000 vehicles each month. It has now resulted in a shorter wait time of close to two and a half months for the Seltos delivery. The wait time also depends on which variant has been chosen.
Manohar Bhat, head of marketing and sales, Kia Motors India, confirmed that the top trims like the GTX+ as well as the automatics are in higher demand. Moreover, the colours too are a bigger bone of contention. Traditional colours like white and silver are more often chosen over the newer orange and so on. If a few days before delivery, a customer wishes to change the colour then its a predicament and the wait period increases. More than 30,000 vehicles have been delivered so far. Manohar further added that the vendors too have to keep up with the company’s supply demand. Currently, the balance has been attained and hence faster deliveries are being promised.
With the ramp in production, parts availability too is claimed to be improved significantly. Manohar says that the company has now doubled the pace of the parts dispatch. There are warehouses at several places, right from the word go. This means a shorter wait time for parts at service centres.
Kia Motors is gearing up to launch the Carnival MPV at the Auto Expo 2020. Kia touchpoints across India are expected to cross 300 by the end of this fiscal year. That is a significant number for a manufacturer that launched its first product in 2019. Moreover, Manohar adds that the Anantapur factory is already equipped to build electric vehicles. As and when the demand and commercial feasibility arises, Kia is ready to make electric vehicles for India. He, however, did not provide a timeline on the launch.
